


Kasai

by adamgurri



Series: Kasai [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Action/Adventure, Fantasy, Gen, Multiverse, Pulp, already badass to more badass, inspired by Holyland, inspired by Inuyasha, inspired by Present Time, inspired by shonen, really hardcore one handed ladies, wimp to badass
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-04-13
Updated: 2015-02-12
Packaged: 2018-01-19 06:07:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 17
Words: 33,550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1458751
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/adamgurri/pseuds/adamgurri
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Your typical story about a college slacker who gets pulled into an alternate world that has been in a state of perpetual war for hundreds of years. Same old same old. This is meant to be a fun romp, not a particularly serious work of fiction. Inspired by anime and manga such as Inuyasha, Holyland, or Samurai Champloo which I enjoy far more than a grown man has any right to. </p><p>I'd like to paraphrase the latter and say "A lot of stuff doesn't make sense. Like I care. Now shut up and enjoy the story."</p><p>Also to paraphase the legendary MST3K:<br/>"If you're wondering why everyone speaks English<br/>Or other Science Facts<br/>Just Repeat to yourself it's just a story<br/>And we should really just relax."</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Andrew

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Door](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Door/gifts).



Andrew was not on a trajectory to take the world by storm, though he often entertained the notion that he would. Living on campus forty five minutes from his mother’s home, on her dime, he put in rather less than his best effort to maintain consistent mediocrity in his academic achievements.

Andrew was short, and stout. He had never played a sport in his life and didn't understand the first thing about even one of them. As a child his father had bribed him with toys in order to get him to play catch, with limited success. Other than that and basic PE in grade school, physical exertion was basically a stranger to him.

Other than how very smart he was certain that he was, if you asked him what his best quality was, he would tell you he was a very loyal friend. And lack of modesty aside, there was some truth to this. Though it mostly manifested itself through listening to his friends’ problems while drinking and playing video games. He didn't talk about his problems much because as far as he was concerned he didn't really have problems. As far as Andrew was concerned, he had drawn a pretty good lot in life. In this, at least, he was right.

All told, Andrew lived a very boring, but not unpleasant, life.

That all changed the fall semester of his sophomore year.

He was walking back to the center of campus from his last class of the week---having deigned to show up because he had a midterm to wing. It was early evening and the campus roads were clogged with commuters leaving to go home. As he crossed the road between two cars, he felt a jolt run through his entire body.

It began as a tingling in his extremities and almost instantly felt as though he had grabbed on to a live wire with both hands. Out of nowhere and for no clear reason he was in excruciating pain. He squeezed his eyes shut and cried out.

Just as suddenly as it had began, it was over. He felt cold, but the pain was over.

"Who are you?" A gruff voice demanded "What did you do with the stone?" Andrew opened his eyes and did NOT see a bunch of cars or anything else remotely familiar. He was somewhere incredibly dark, lit only by torches---actual torches, with fire and everything---held by four guys who did not look happy to see him.

"Where am I?" he asked in a dazed voice, not registering that a question had been addressed to him. The largest, angriest looking of the group took a step toward him.

"Explain yourself," he barked.

"I don't understand what's happening," Andrew said earnestly. This seemed only to irritate the strangers further. The big one walked over and grabbed for Andrew's collar. To both of their surprise, Andrew moved out of the way, just avoiding being snatched.

"You have interfered in some very important business," the man snarled, pulling out a dagger the size of Andrew's forearm, "now either start talking or forfeit your life."

"Calm down dude," Andrew said in alarm, "I really have no idea how I got here or who the heck you guys are." The soldier---or whatever he was---seemed to chew this over for a moment.

"You may be telling the truth," he allowed, "let's see if you stick to your story after losing an arm." In the blink of an eye he closed the distance between them and sliced the dagger towards Andrew's right arm. Andrew didn't stand a chance. At least, he shouldn't have.

But in fact he dropped to his back and the blade narrowly missed him. Now extremely frustrated, the soldier stabbed downward, but Andrew rolled out of the way and then jumped to his feet.

"Come on, I really don't know anything," he whined, terrified, confused, and pretty sure he'd wet himself a little, "just leave me alone!"

"Stay still you little rat," the soldier snarled, and began swinging the dagger deftly to cut Andrew down. Adding to his confusion and fear, Andrew found himself dodging these new attacks as well---though the soldier finally drew blood, aiming for Andrew's neck but managing to slice across his cheek.

Andrew cried out---and then literally started crying. "Jesus Christ what is wrong with you," he whimpered, "I don't know anything, I already fucking told you."

"That's enough, lieutenant," Came a hoarse voice from back where the remaining four soldiers were. The assault ceased, for the moment. 

"But captain---"

"Don't you get it?" and now the captain, an older man, walked up next to the lieutenant, along with the two other soldiers, "The stone chose its master. How else do you think this chubby brat could have dodged your attacks as effortlessly as a seasoned veteran of hand to hand combat?"

"This kid?" the lieutenant said doubtfully, looking Andrew over.

"I have no idea what you are talking about---" before Andrew could finish, the captain had his hand around his throat. Andrew had moved to dodge, but the captain hand reacted quickly with his other hand.

"You see? He doesn't even realize he's doing it." The captain explained, holding Andrew tight.

"Incredible," the lieutenant marveled, "what should we do with him? If we kill him, will the stone return?"

"Let's not risk it, for all we know that would destroy the stone completely," the captain replied, "we'll take him to the Lab; perhaps they can figure out how to extract the stone." He gestured for the others, and the two soldiers who hadn't said anything came over and seized Andrew by the arms. The captain let his throat go, and he coughed loudly. As the captain walked away from them, Andrew wondered how this bizarre day could get any worse.

The captain made a strange, wet noise and fell limp. In the dark it was hard to make out what had happened, but a figure stood just beyond the captain's crumpled form. It stepped into the light, revealing a woman.

She was like no one Andrew had ever seen. She was even taller than the big lieutenant who had tried to take his head off, but leaner, and muscled tightly from top to bottom. She looked like a wild animal---she was filthy, wore ragged blue robes, had tangled, jet black hair that fell over piercing green eyes. In her left hand she clutched a dagger, larger than the soldiers', dripping with blood. In her right hand---Andrew blinked. No right hand. Her right arm ended in a stump.

"It's Kasai! She has killed the captain!" The lieutenant shouted, and Andrew thought he sounded a little afraid. Not that he blamed him. "Anthony, hold the boy tight and make sure he doesn't get away. Charles, lend me a hand in taking down this menace." The guy holding Andrew's left arm let go, but the other guy twisted his right arm behind him and held him tight.

"Charles" tossed down his torch, took out a dagger, and then he and the lieutenant slowly edged towards their attacker. It was clear that they had a healthy respect for this strange wild woman. Though given that she had just gutted their boss in like half a second, Andrew supposed this was pretty rational.

It didn't help them. They were watching her one hand very closely for any sign of movement, but it was the elbow of her stump-arm that suddenly smashed into the lieutenant's face with the force of a wrecking ball. Andrew let out a horrified gasp---the collision had made a sickening crunch. Before the lieutenant could fall or his comrade assist him, the woman had buried her dagger in the man's belly. Andrew could swear he saw it pierce through on the other side.

Both men dispatched with, she made her way towards the only two left in the room. "I'm not with them," Andrew stammered quickly. His captor released him, and Andrew fell to his hands and knees.

"Stay back," the soldier said from behind him, though it sounded more like a plea than a demand.

"I never spare your kind," the woman said, speaking for the first time. Her voice was lower than Andrew had expected, and coarse. "but I might make an exception today if you tell me where I can find the stone." Andrew could hear the man behind him breathing heavily.

"It's---it's the boy," the soldier said. 

"The boy?" she repeated impatiently. Andrew looked up and saw her staring down at him disdainfully. He felt very small.

"We---we came for the stone. We found it, but---we only saw it for a moment. Then it was gone, and he was there." 

"And that's all you know?" she asked levelly.

"That's...that's it." Andrew might have felt the man was throwing away his dignity, had Andrew not been on all fours on the ground. Oh yeah, and he had DEFINITELY pissed himself at some point, not even a little.

"You can go." She said after a moment's consideration, without taking her eyes off of Andrew. Andrew heard tentative footsteps, and then saw the soldier run past him. He didn't get far---the woman grabbed him by the arm that had the dagger, and then brought her elbow against the side of his head. Andrew could hear his neck snap. He fell in a heap, near the rest of his dead comrades.

"Why..." Andrew asked. He was crying, but he felt suddenly angry. Maybe this was the part of panic where you lost your senses entirely, but for some reason he was more outraged than terrified, even though he should definitely be the latter.

"That's none of your concern," she replied, dripping with contempt.

"I'm stuck in a cave or something with a violent, lying psychopath," he said, getting to his feet, "I'm pretty concerned!"

"Are you really going to grow a pair now, after you've already wet yourself?" she said, sounding amused. She sniffed, "Twice, probably."

"That's not---it's been a really weird day, OK?!" He said defensively, blushing.

"I don't really care," she told him coolly, walking over to him. He trembled but stood his ground. He'd seen how fast she was. Running away wouldn't accomplish a thing. She stopped when she was standing very close to him. She sniffed the air again. Andrew assumed she was making fun of him again. "You're nothing special, are you?" she asked, confirming his assumption.

"Well not all of us can kill four guys like it's nothing," he bristled, not really sure why he was antagonizing someone who could do what he just said.

"You're small, fat, weak, and the best courage you can muster is to whine," she snorted, "what in the hells do you have to do with the Stone of Arete?"

"I don't even know what that is," he said, not looking away from her condescending gaze, "all I know is one minute I was living my life and the next minute I was here with a bunch of crazy people trying to kill me."

"No one has tried to kill you," she scoffed.

"How would you know?"

"I don't think much of Mibu soldiers, but the weakest, most inexperienced, most idiotic one of them could kill you in five seconds without even trying," she told him bluntly.

"For your information," he replied, getting seriously annoyed, "the big guy tried to kill me for like, ten minutes before you got here. And all he managed to give me was this," he pointed to the gash on his cheek. She looked at the wound, appeared to chew on this information for a moment.

Then she swung to backhand him. As fast as she was, and standing as close as she was, there was no reason he should have been able to avoid it. But he did, bending backwards in time. She smirked a little, and then her foot swept to kick his legs out from under him. He jumped backwards.

"Well isn't that interesting," she said, with a feral grin. Andrew noted, with no small discomfort, that her canines seemed especially pronounced and sharp. She rushed at him then, swinging fist and elbow, and kicking. He barely managed to avoid her attacks. Though she was moving very fast, he could tell that she was just playing with him. She had moved much faster, and more decisively, when dispatching the soldiers.

She continued to press forward until he found his back against a hard, rough wall. She concluded with her elbow, which she intentionally aimed just next to his head, slamming it into the wall. The stone shattered and pieces of it fell on him. She put her arm against the wall to the other side of him, and he realized he was pinned.

"The stone chose you as its master," she said, her grinning face just an inch from his. His heart pounded in his chest. He could not tell whether it was because he was terrified or because she was kind of hot.

"That's what the old guy said," he admitted quietly, "right before you...you know." She appraised him again, and that crazy grin slowly faded. She pulled back, and he slumped down to the ground.

"What should I do with you?" she asked, not really directing the question to him.

"The captain guy seemed to think killing me would risk destroying this stone thing," he offered, hoping she would buy that line of reasoning.

"I guess he wasn't a complete fool," she mused, "I need more information. I can always kill you later."

"You're not really a people person, are you?" He sighed.

"Come with me," she commanded, offering him her one hand, "we will go to the Maker. He will have answers."

"What if I don't trust you?" He said.

"You'd be rather stupid if you did," she replied, "but I don't see that you have much choice. All I want is the stone. I don't really care about why you were brought here or what the stone has done to you. If you get picked up by any more Mibu soldiers, however, they'll probably take you back to the Lab to study you. You may not survive coming with me, but you will DEFINITELY not survive the Lab."

"Ugh...I...I just don't understand what the hell is going on," he said miserably, his fear, confusion, anger and adrenaline burning out and leaving him with despair. "I was having a perfectly normal day. Where did it go wrong? Was it because I actually decided to go to class today? Nothing good can ever come of that."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," she replied, growing annoyed with his whining.

"You know...college," he said absently.

"What is 'college'?" She asked, as though knowing this would solve some deeper puzzle concerning their circumstances.

"Uh...it's where you go to learn stuff," he replied, "there's no college in this place?"

"I've never heard of such a thing," she told him, "sounds like a waste of time."

"You're telling me. No college, huh? That's the first good news I've had all day."

"Are you going to come with me or am I going to have to drag you?" She said, getting impatient.

"I guess I'm coming with you," he sighed, finally getting to his feet. "Do you think this...Maker might be able to send me home, if he even knows how to get what you want without killing me?"

"If anyone would know, the Maker would," she told him earnestly, "you have my word that if there's a way to spare you, and a way to send you back, I'll do everything I can to get it done." Her promise surprised him---he would not have bothered to ask it of her.

"Uh, thanks," he said, then remembered that it was conditional on her not killing him, "I guess." She gave him a curt nod, then walked over and pulled her dagger from the dead soldier she had buried it in. He watched in disgust as she wiped it off on the soldier's clothes, then put it in a sheath that was hanging from her right hip.

"Let's go," she said, and led him out of the cave.


	2. Under Cover of Night

"We’re going to need to get you a change of clothes," she told him as they walked out of the cave, "I’ve got a cache hidden a few days from here. It shouldn't take us too far off course from where the Maker lives."

"A few DAYS?" Andrew exclaimed.

"We’ll just have to be extra careful until we get there," she replied, misreading the cause of his alarm, "if you didn't want to stand out like a beacon in the night, you should never have put on such strange garb in the first place."

"What? Oh, you don't want us to be spotted," he surmised, "it's not my fault. This is what normal clothes look like where I'm from. I just...didn't think about the fact that I had to wear these pants that are kind of...gross now." Why did he say that? Did he want to embarrass himself even more?

"You're more worried about being dirty than avoiding people who might kill you?" She said, looking back at him so she could see the smug smirk on her face.

"Well I can see that you stopped caring about being dirty a long time ago," he shot back, and she scowled. "And anyway YOU might kill me."

"If you didn't want urine soaked clothes you shouldn't have wet yourself." She grumbled, turning back away from him.

Oh yeah, way to go, Andrew. Way to turn on that old Andrew charm.

"This is going to be a long trip at this rate," he muttered to himself.

"It will be shorter if you keep talking and draw unwanted attention," she replied coldly. He sighed, resigned to an unpleasant few days and who knows what after that.

They were in a thick forest that was not like any that Andrew had seen before. For one thing, there were no paths; it was clear that this was not a place where people spent a lot of time. For another, the grass---and the leaves---were blue! The very same blue as Kasai’s tattered robes.

Andrew realized that her outfit was not some weird uniform but more like camouflage. 

"Where the hell am I?" He asked himself, miserably.

"Shut up," she hissed, "especially now, when there may be a backup squad nearby, we need to be quiet and careful." She shot him a glare. To her consternation, he pouted. She looked away and sucked in a breath, trying to control her temper. How had she ended up with this...pathetic, simpering child?

She had no idea where he had come from. He had not knowledge of this place, its peoples, or its common myths. She had never seen clothes like his before. He was clearly rich, and spoiled. At first she had been happy to help an innocent escape from those Mibu bastards, but it wasn't long before a large part of her wanted to just slit his throat and take her chances that the stone would be lost.

It was only a few hours before nightfall, and she warned him as the sun set that as soon as it was dark they would move even faster.

"But how will I follow you or avoid running into a tree if I can't see anything?" He asked.

"Stay very close to me," she told him tersely, "the moon is large tonight. Some of its light should pierce the trees, enough to see me if you stand right by me."

"At least there's a moon here," he murmured. She wasn't sure what to make of that.

It was much darker than she had led him to believe, and he was very afraid that he was going to lose her and end up wandering alone in this strange, hostile place. He was walking quite close to her, but he was having trouble maintaining the pace they were at---he was as far from an athlete as you can get.

Like a child, he reached to grab her sleeve for reassurance that he would not lose her. Like a stupid, suicidal child. For no sooner had he done it than she whipped around and put her hand around his throat.

"Don't." She growled, lifting him up like he weighed nothing at all. She dropped him without further ceremony and then began moving again, even faster this time. He jogged to keep up with her.

"W-wait," he gasped. She was much further ahead, and his anxiety about being lost far overrode his fear at her sudden display of physical dominance. But his side was hurting like hell, and he simply did not have it in him to match her pace. He tried his best not to succumb to panic, focusing on the task of keeping her in his sight even as she got further ahead of him and the trees increasingly got in the ways. He told himself that he could follow her, because he was too afraid to believe the alternative.

Kasai arrived at the spot where she intended them to stop for the night. She was sick of this already, and it had not even been a full day. What was he thinking? She could have snapped his neck had she not checked herself.

It was then she realized that she had lost him. She allowed herself a low, frustrated growl. Now she would have to track him, and probably lose a lot of valuable ground. She would scream if she wasn't sure it would get her killed.

But then she heard something faint. Focusing on the sound, she realized it was someone panting heavily. Could it be?

Sure enough, not ten minutes later, he hobbled up, gasping for breath. He saw her and she saw his face lit up in the dim moonlight. It was almost charming. Then he collapsed in a wheezing, sweating heap. That was less than charming.

How had he found her? There is no way he could have seen her. And he was just a human; he could not track her the way she could have tracked him, if she had had to. Was it the stone?

She walked up to him and gently poked him in the ribs with her foot, to get his attention.

"W..what?" He gasped, eyes wide. His lungs were on fire, and he wasn't sure if she was really there or if he was just hallucinating from sheer overexertion.

"We’re going to stop for the night," she told him.

"Thank...thank God!"

"Keep it down," she hissed, "before we can sleep we need to climb this tree." She gestured to the large dark form she had been standing next to.

"What??" He would have shrieked if he could get enough air in his lungs to pull it off.

"I said keep it down!" She snapped.

"Why do we need to sleep in a tree?" He asked, in that simpering time of voice that made her want to give him a good whack just on principle.

"If you would like to risk being eaten by one of the many things that would find you delicious down here, be my guest."

That got him to his feet. "There are dangerous animals out here?" He asked, still too loud for her comfort, "Why didn't you say something when we were traveling?"

"I thought you weren't so very stupid and already knew, or could figure it out." She said bluntly, the last of her patience gone. He got that look on his face that he had when they first met, a sudden rebelliousness. She realized that this half bravery was really the impetuousness of a spoiled child not getting his way.

“How do you know there aren't things in the trees that could kill us?” He asked grumpily, “like a poisonous snake or something?”

“I have never heard of such a thing,”she replied, “but there are tree creatures that can harm you, yes. You're going to have to trust me. I have been living in woods like these my entire life. This tree is our safest bet.” He looked at her, and for a moment she thought he would argue out if sheer stubborn stupidity. But then he just looked tired.

“I’ve never climbed a tree before.” He admitted. At this point, she was not surprised. She even felt a little sorry for him.

"It isn't hard,” she said, “I will help you.”


	3. The Curse of Perpetual War

At four years old she had been turned into a soldier. In times of peace the Choshu did not enlist their children, but no one alive could remember when peace had a place in these lands. So she was trained to fight and deployed into battle alongside her peers and adults.

She never showed any propensity for strategy; she was the worst among her peers at the games they used to check such things. But she excelled at tactics, and was a ferocious warrior. Though her grandfather was a great general, he was proud of her for the skills she did have, and the diligence with which she performed her duty.

He was intensely proud, her grandfather. And not so very emotional, whereas she was more prone to angry outbursts. When she threw a fit and looked to rebel against some decision of his she found unfair, he would put her in her place swiftly and with minimal effort. Yet he was not uncaring, nor even unloving. When they were alone he could be very tender towards his granddaughter. 

It was during one such time when they sat alone in their quarters that he said something that she would never forget.

"How long has this war gone on, grandfather?" She had asked him. She was three or four years into her life as a soldier, and it already seemed as though it would never end. They lost ground, they gained ground, and either way so many died.

He had not answered her at first. He gazed into the pink beams of the setting sun for what seemed like a very long time, to the young Kasai. "This land is poisoned," he said suddenly.

"Poisoned?"

"Something very powerful must have hated it, and all of us who live in it," he continued, "for they have placed upon it the curse of perpetual war."

\---------

She awoke, as she had for too many years, on the branch of a tree, "the curse of perpetual war" echoing in her mind. She was instantly aware that she was not alone. Not long after awareness reached her, memory came on its heels. She tried not to groan.

Andrew lay on the branch above hers; she had insisted on it so that she would be able to see him easily if something forced them to make a quick decision or escape. He was not graceful on the climb up, and he did not look graceful now. He lay on his stomach with his arms and legs hanging down over each side of the branch, and his face pressed sideways against it. She was amazed that he had not fallen all night. Somehow, the fact that he had slept like that and not managed to kill himself in a fatal fall annoyed her.

He was so soft, so meek. He had clearly not been in a fight in his whole life, never mind a battle. Was it possible that the stone had pulled him from somewhere that was at peace? But she dismissed the thought as quickly as it occurred to her. It was not possible. No such place existed.

"Wake up." She said firmly. No response. She stood, and reached up to prod him on the shoulder. "Hey." She said. Nothing.

She clenched her jaw. This kid. "Wake up!" She shouted, and gave him a good thump on the shoulder.

"Ow!" He cried out, jerking back from the blow. This broke his fragile balance, sending him over the side. He instinctively latched on, and so he hung upside down, completely disoriented.

Kasai closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead. She walked down the branch until she was in front of him, and turned to face him. At first he looked confused, then recognition dawned on his face. Finally, he settled into looking disappointed.

"Guess it wasn't all a weird dream, huh?" He asked, sounding down about it. He looked pretty pathetic, moping there upside down, hanging from a branch like a sloth. She sighed, and then reached up and grabbed a handful of the fabric on his strange clothes. She lifted him up effortlessly. The branch buckled a bit under their combined weight, but she was not concerned. She was confident in her assessment of the branch’s strength.

Then, to his horror, she crouched down and leapt off the branch. He couldn't help it---he let out a shout of surprise. She landed nimbly on the ground and dropped him on his backside. 

"Unfortunately for both of us, it was not a dream," she confirmed, "now get up, we should cover at least as much ground today as we did yesterday. And don't shout like that again, unless you want to invite a group of Mibu soldiers to come and cut you open."

The next few days were a blur. It's funny how quickly slumping around a forest with a bloodthirsty one-handed warrior woman can become the new normal. By the third night he was almost used to moving quickly for hours at a time until he was utterly exhausted, and eating the weird food she provided him, and sleeping in trees.

Almost.

Then one day she told him they were near the cache. She led him to a stream and told him he could wash himself there if he wished to. She would go to the cache on her own---she had kept its location a secret for years and she wasn't about to give it away to someone she met less than a week ago.

So when he was sure she was gone he stripped down and timidly walked into the stream. He had never been skinny dipping before; he was not nearly that interesting. But he had not been able to shower since he had got to this strange place. Normally that wouldn't have been a problem, but after running around the woods and sleeping in trees for a few days in a row, even a college boy feels like getting clean.

So he finally plunged into the stream and rubbed the dirt off from his face, his body. It only seemed like a few minutes before Kasai was back with the clothes and what looked like a small satchel of some sort. She dropped the clothes near the edge of the stream. "Could you turn your back or something?" He asked from the water.

"I was a soldier, I prepared for battle in barracks with many men," she told him, looking bored, "you're not going to offend me."

That didn't mean that he was Ok with it! "What, do you WANT to sneak a peek?" He asked accusingly. She scowled.

"Feh, fine, I'll look the other way, princess," she snorted, turning around and crossing her arms.

The clothes were identical to hers, though smaller and cleaner. He didn't have anything to dry off with, so he just got into them wet. "OK, I'm dressed." He said.

She turned and looked at him. He was dressed like Choshu warrior, but he certainly did not look like one. It wasn't just that he was overweight and lacked any of the distinct features common to her people---like green eyes.

No, she had never seen someone wearing those robes look so relaxed, so untroubled. Even as stressed as he was by his unfamiliar circumstances, he just seemed more at ease than anyone she had ever known, Choshu or otherwise.

She decided then that it had to be true. The stone had found a land at peace, somewhere, somehow. And it had chosen this poor fool to join them in a land cursed with perpetual war. At first his softness had irritated her; he had clearly had a privileged life compared to most people, never mind her. Now she just felt sorry for him. He was truly not prepared for this terrible place.

"What's wrong?" He asked, reading something in her expression, "Do I look really stupid in this?" She allowed herself a smile. Then she was knocked over---he had sprung up and jumped at her. She heard something whiz by them, and saw three arrows land right around where she had just been standing.

She did not have time to curse herself for not noticing the ambush. In an instant, she pulled out her dagger and flung it at the source of one of the arrows. She heard it find its mark, but she was already turning in the other direction towards one of the other two marksmen. She charged and saw them---one marksman in the tree, preparing his next arrow. Two soldiers on the ground, swords drawn.

Even if she took them all out without injury, there was the other marksman, as well as probably four more soldiers. She was going to take damage, it was merely a question of how much.

Whether or not she would succeed in killing them all was not a question at all, in her mind.

\-------------

This was so much worse than the aftermath of the first fight.

At Kasai’s screaming insistence, he had pulled an arrow out of her shoulderblade. It had been unbelievably hard and he had nearly passed out when he yanked it out along with a fair amount of skin and muscle and blood. But that was nothing compared to the deep gash in her gut. Andrew was not good around blood. He had alway been that way. He was fighting off nausea and a fainting spell just by looking at her wound. How was he going to help her?

She was in a fog from the moment the arrows had left their slings. In truth, she lived in this fog, most of the time. The feeling of barely being able to breathe, of her senses being at their most keen, of having a heightened awareness. It was the fog of war. It had filled her life practically from the day she was born.

She had killed them all, of course. It had been easy, though it had cost her a little more than she had intended to pay. The arrow was nothing but the stomach wound would hurt like a bitch for hours.

She allowed herself the luxury of passing out from the pain, estimating that she would have half a day at least before the team was missed and others would come looking.

She dreamed of the battles she had fought in her childhood. Not a specific one, or a sequence even, but all of them, blurred into one.

She woke slowly, achingly. This was not her first rodeo; she had suffered far worse injuries than this. But she usually didn't awake to feel a pair of hands putting pressure on her wound. Confused, she looked up and saw Andrew staring down at her, his eyes red. She realized with no small amount of astonishment that he must have been crying.

“What are you doing?” She asked, without her usual harshness.

“What does it look like I'm doing, you idiot?” He said miserably, “I'm trying to stop you from dying!” He picked the strangest times to get confrontational. She put her one large hand over his two smaller ones.

“Thank you,” she said earnestly, and meant it. She could not remember the last time someone had willingly tried to help her. “But I don't need your help. I will be fine.”

“Are you crazy?” He snapped, “You've got a huge cut in your belly, you don't just walk that off.” She gripped his hands harder and pulled him off. He stared---her wound had closed.

“I'm not like you, or like those men that just attacked us," she told him softly, “my people heal very quickly, especially if we have had to do it many times before. It's one of the reasons they hunt me wherever I go.”

“Amazing,” he said, and meant it.

“Come on,” she said, pulling herself up and slowly getting to her feet. It hurt tremendously but it was nothing she couldn't handle. “Those guys weren't following us. They must have received information that I had been around here before. They were waiting for me. Now when it's discovered that they died on their mission, the Mibu will know we've been here. We've got to get moving.”


	4. The Maker

Kasai appeared to be completely healed after less than a day. Even after all of the strange things he had seen, Andrew couldn't believe it. He was no doctor or combat veteran, but he knew that stomach wound should have been fatal without aggressive and immediate medical care. He had applied pressure to it because he was desperate, because there was nothing else he could do and he could not stand the thought of being left alone in this terrible blue forest. But it shouldn't have mattered; if the blood loss didn't kill her, infection in the wound should have.

Yet there she stood, walking just as quickly and effortlessly as she had for days. He could not wrap his head around it.

For the first few days after that, she was almost nice to him. She was not talkative, but she checked frequently to confirm that she had not lost him and that he was OK. That may not sound like much, but it was a substantial step up from their initial journey to the cache.

Once, he had tripped---as he had done frequently on their journey so far---and she walked over and offered her hand to help him up.

"Thanks. I'm no good at climbing trees, but I seem to be an expert at finding the ground," he said by way of apology, as he got to his feet and brushed himself off. She didn't respond, but as she turned he could swear she smiled a little. He felt suddenly very suave and charming. After a few more minutes of walking, he decided to try chatting her up.

"So how does--"

"We shouldn't talk," she cut him off. It was not harsh, but it was firm. His ego deflated like a day old balloon.

In the days that followed they had a few close encounters. After that terrifying ambush, Kasai was not letting her guard down even a little. She would stop suddenly and get closer to the ground. She would gesture for him to come closer. Together, they would slink to some big tree and make their way up. The first time, he never saw them, though he thought he could feel them---but that was probably just nerves. The second time, three days after that, the Mibu soldiers came within a few feet of the tree but did not spot them. The blue garb was effective at blending them in with the leaves.

They travelled for what seemed like an eternity. As time went on, Kasai’s veneer of kindness began to wear off. In fact, she grew downright nasty, berating him for the smallest mistake or noise. Or for looking at her in a way she didn't particularly like. Or breathing too loudly. Or existing.

"What is your problem?" He finally hissed, "I want this trip to be over as much as you do but I don't even have any idea of how close we are."

"We’re a day away, at most," she told him coldly, without turning around. 

"What? That's great!" He exclaimed, unable to help himself. She had turned and was in his face in the blink of an eye.

"Don't. Shout." She growled menacingly. Her fist was clenched and she looked ready to take his head off. He was taken aback. She had been sharp with him the past few days, but not like this. She turned around and stomped off, and after collecting himself he followed her.

"Wait...are you angry that we’re almost there?" He asked. No reply. "Do you really hate this guy or something? Or is he really dangerous?"

"Shut your mouth and just walk quickly," she growled, "I don't want it to be nightfall by the time we get there."

He stopped talking, but he wasn't happy about it. Something was bothering her and she was taking it out on him, and he didn't appreciate it. Maybe she and the Maker were lifelong enemies. Maybe he had killed her family. Or maybe they were ex’s. Or maybe she was just psychotic and prone to mood swings. Who could say?

Maybe six hours later, he could make out what looked like a man-made structure through the thicket. Within an hour they were almost to it. It was blue---like everything in this strange forest---from which he assumed it was made from wood from the local trees. Otherwise it looked like a perfectly normal cabin, the sort you might find anywhere.

Kasai was wound extremely tight; he hadn't seen her so tense even as they hid from soldiers who were uncomfortably nearby. It made him nervous. What were they up against? How strong was this Maker, and would Kasai be able to beat him?

The door opened, and they both froze in place. Andrew’s heart beat in his chest, and every part of him screamed to run away.

Out of the cabin walked what seemed at first like a blur of white, but Andrew then saw to be a man. About a head shorter than Kasai (so much taller than Andrew), wearing a white robe, with long, flowing white hair that fell somewhere behind him. He grinned at them---pearly white teeth from a mouth on a marble white face. He seemed unreal, an ethereal presence.

"Kasai!" He greeted warmly, walking over purposefully. She tensed further, and Andrew was sure she was going to whip out her dagger and slit the man’s throat. But to his horror, the man threw his arms around her and gave her a familiar hug. "It has been so long!"

"Hello, Maker," she said with resignation, her shoulders slumping. He let her go and stood at arm’s length from her.

"You were just a little girl the last time I saw you," he commented, "what an impressive warrior you have grown up to be."

"Thank you," she said awkwardly, and it was then that Andrew realized she was embarrassed. Had she been in a bad mood just because she was stressing out about seeing him for the first time in a long time? Like a parent you knew you hadn't called in far too long.

"But who is this young man?" The Maker asked, looking at Andrew.

"He is the reason I have come," she replied, "may we go inside? I would rather not speak of it out here."

"Of course," he said, and led them in.

The inside appeared to be a workspace. There was a table with papers scattered on it, and another with all sorts of tools. Andrew supposed that if he was called Maker it wasn't unreasonable to assume that he made things. Their host assembled three chairs together that had been at various workstations. He sat, and Andrew followed suit. Kasai remained standing.

No one said anything for a long time. Andrew felt extremely awkward. Kasai looked at them both with a dispassionate gaze, and the Maker stared at him intently. He finally decided to break the silence. 

“Nice to meet you, I'm---” He began.

“You're Andrew,” the Maker interrupted, “I know.”

“So you were aware of it.” Kasai said, as though she had suspected.

“I made the stone and I am connected to it,” he replied matter-of-factly, “I was aware the moment poor Andrew was plucked from his comfortable life and dropped into your...less than comfortable one. I was aware as soon as the process began, to be accurate.”

“But why?” Andrew asked, “Why me?”

“The stone has certain criteria for its master. If the person who finds it does not meet that criteria, someone is chosen at random from the stock of all possible candidates in the multiverse,” the Maker explained, his tone implying that all of this should be rather obvious if you just use your head.

Kasai and Andrew both gaped at him.

“What?!” They exclaimed in near unison.

“What possible criteria...he’s not even a warrior!” Kasai shouted in outrage.

“Perhaps that was not relevant,” the older man said with a sly grin.

“Not...relevant?! For the greatest weapon ever developed to be used by a warrior? Or at least someone who has seen even a minute of a life-threatening situation?!” She barked, looking pretty well pissed off.

“Excuse me,” Andrew interjected, getting annoyed at her continued emphasis on his weakness and inexperience, “but do you think we might move on to more important matters? Whether you can remove the stone from me, how I can get home?”

The Maker regarded him again. He seemed amused, but then so far he had always seemed at least mildly amused. He struck Andrew as being one of those annoying people who always pretended to know the joke before everyone else did, even when there was no joke. There was someone on his floor back on campus exactly like that. He hated that guy.

“Kasai, would you leave us alone for a little while?” He said suddenly.

“What? Absolutely not," she scoffed.

“You're not going to get anything more from me unless I can speak with this young man alone,” he insisted, “why don't you go make sure you weren't followed? It can't hurt to be cautious.”

She scowled, and shot a look at Andrew that he couldn't read. But then she left, without saying another word, slamming the door behind her.

“She always had a temper,” he sighed.

“How do you know her? Are you family?” Andrew asked, unable to contain his curiosity.

“Family? Well, in a way,” The Maker replied, his eyes glittering with an untold joke, “but not literally. We aren't even the same species.”

“Right...she's not human,” Andrew commented, thinking of her stomach wound.

“Nor am I, incidentally. But I'm a different sort of not human.”

“Are there a lot of not-humans around here that look more or less human?”

“Not as many as there used to be. But are you sure this is what you want to be asking about, Andrew?”

“No...what is happening to me? What does the stone do? Will I be able to go home?”

“The Stone of Arete, taken from the word for ’excellence’ in your Ancient Greek, is an item which allows its master to become a polished, perfect warrior---or as close to it as is possible for whoever that master happens to be.”

“In my case it seems quite far from perfect,” Andrew noted. The Maker startled him by laughing suddenly.

“It takes time and practice, and begins by manifesting itself in partial ways. In your case you seem to have been born with rather keen powers of observation, and so it has helped you anticipate several attacks since you've been here.”

“I see...” Andrew contemplated that this might mean superpowers or something, “can it be removed?”

“No, not unless it decides the moment is right on its own.”

“And if I die?”

“The stone will be gone forever.”

“Kasai is not going to be happy about that,” he muttered.

“Are you disappointed that she has no reason to kill you?” The Maker asked with another laugh.

“No...I just..” He stammered, turning the older man’s laugh into a fit.

“As for getting home,” the Maker said after getting ahold of himself, “the stone brought you here, and you can use it to get back. You will just need to practice using it until you get the hang of it.”

“Practice how? I didn't even realize when I was using it.”

“Why, in combat of course.”

Kasai stood outside the door, frustrated. She had heard it all. The stone was lost to her and the boy would be gone as soon as he figured out how to control his new abilities. At present he was whining quite characteristically, and the Maker was enjoying himself far too much, as usual. She would leave them there---she had no more need of either of them. But just then the conversation topic changed.

“What do you think of her?” the Maker asked. There was a long silence, and she listened intently.

“She terrified me when we first met,” Andrew admitted, “she was so brutal, so merciless. She took care of four soldiers like they were nothing. Then it seemed like I was just a nuisance to her, something she had to out up with until she could be sure she could just kill me. But...”

“But?”

“I'm not sure she would have killed me, even if you told her that would get her the stone. Maybe I'm just deluding myself because she's kind of hot,” he said frankly. Kasai did not know what the phrase meant. The Maker laughed.

“She has always been a lovely girl; even among a stunning people her beauty stood out,” he said, making Kasai realize Andrew must have complimented her looks. This annoyed her; she had her pride as a warrior.

“How long has she been alone?” Andrew asked, and she wished they would talk about something else. Perhaps she ought to go.

“Her people were wiped out when she was very young,” the Maker sighed, “I would have welcomed her here, but she never came. Too proud, I think. I am glad that you gave her a reason to see me, if nothing else.” Kasai felt a lump forming in her throat, but she willed it to pass. Such weakness was unbecoming.

And that's when she heard the footsteps. She cursed herself for losing focus once again. Without announcing herself she stormed inside and closed the door behind her. The two inside looked up at her. Andrew looked startled, but for the Maker’s face she could tell he intended her to hear everything. This was highly irritating.

“We are surrounded.” She said tersely, emanating anger.

“How many?” The Maker asked.

“Too many,” she said simply, “they must have found you long ago, and figured out where we were heading.”

“I will negotiate safe passage.” He assures her.

“Negotiate!” She spat, “You think your word, or anyone's word means a thing to those...people? You think they didn't come here expecting you to plead on my behalf? Have you always been such a fool, Maker?”

“Calm yourself,” he said, no longer looking amused, “we must think. We will find a way out of this.”

“I come once in fifteen years and an army follows me,” she growled, “do you still think it was pride that kept me from coming to you until now, old man?”

“Easy, Kasai,” Andrew said softly.

“You,” she gave him a piercing, furious look, “what right have you to speak so familiarly to me? I should break you where you sit, you worthless---”

Someone knocked on the door. They all stared at it. “I am coming inside. I am alone.” Said a voice from the other side. Kasai rushed at the door and gave it a fierce kick, breaking it in half. The form on the other side had moved out of the way. “Do you want to fight everyone here or shall we speak inside first?” He asked flatly. Kasai looked to answer him in deed rather than words, but the Maker interjected.

“Let him in Kasai,” he insisted, “we may as well hear what he has to say before we all start killing each other.” Kasai did not move, but she didn't attack, either. The man stepped over the broken door and walked inside.

He had short, blonde hair and was not much taller than Andrew. That was about their only similarity, however. The guy looked tough, and self-assured. He wore a silver uniform with several adornments on it. On each if his hip were long, thin sword sheaths, with big, ornate gold handles.

“Welcome to my home General Alexander,” the Maker said, “I don't suppose I can talk you into leaving peacefully?”

“That is why I came like this, as a good faith gesture,” Alexander replied. He looked around the room and his eyes settled on Andrew. He stared down his nose as if from a great height, and Andrew felt very small under his gaze. “Is...that him?” He put has more distaste into “that” than Andrew thought possible.

“That is mine,” Kasai growled, stepping in from the doorframe, “and you were a fool to come in here thinking you could talk your way out with him.”

“I am not afraid of you,” Alexander replied dismissively, “and even if you killed me you would not make it out alive.”

“You have no idea...” She growled. Her body tensed, ready to attack at any moment. Her eyes were unnaturally bloodshot. “...no idea what I am capable of, little Mibu.”

“I think I know that better than anyone, butcher.” He shot back, staring her in the eyes. Eyes which Andrew realized were changing; her green cornea were getting speckles of a glowing orange color which slowly spread.

“You are right to call me that,” she said with a low chuckle that made Andrew’s skin crawl, “you don't even know how many of your men I have killed. Do you think that the army you have brought with you out there even adds up to half as many as I have left rotting in the forest?”

“Perhaps not, but you have always faced them in far fewer numbers than this,” Alexander replied, though Andrew thought his voice wavered. Kasai laughed, and it was a terrible sound.

“The Choshu dream of a glorious death such as you offer me today, little Mibu. But with all the practice my healing has had, who can say if your people will get that honor at all, rather than die a shameful death at the hands of a single one-armed woman!” Her corneas shined entirely orange against her bloodshot eyes, and her blood lust was palpable.

“Stop.” Andrew said softly, “Kasai, please stop.” She looked at him. He stood. “I'm no use to you anyway. I will go with them. Please just let them take me.” Alexander stared at him hard, reappraising him.

“You give your word to take the boy and leave us?” The Maker asked.

“What---” Kasai sputtered, the orange fading from her eyes.

“I give my word as Supreme General of the Mibu forces,” Alexander said sharply. “You will come willingly?” He directed this to Andrew.

“I will. Just don't do anything to them.” He replied firmly. Alexander turned to leave, but Kasai stood in the doorway. Andrew walked up to her.

“It's OK,” he said quietly, standing less than a foot from her and looking up at her face, “you don't have to fight this time. You don't want me around anyway. I'm just loud, clumsy, dead weight. You're much safer on your own and I don't have anything you want.” 

She did not say anything. She was completely expressionless. But she stepped out if the way. Andrew walked through the door, and Alexander followed.

Kasai stood there, not moving, for a very long time.


	5. Focus

The initial period of his captivity---for Andrew could not tell you how long it was---seemed interminable. The Lab had all of the charm of a medieval dungeon, and many of the tools, or so it appeared to him. The people there seemed to be doing something vaguely like science; they would draw samples of his blood for instance. But the methods they had for doing this were not nearly so nice as what he remembered the one time he had had a blood test before. There was something to create suction, but it was a much more blunt instrument than he would have thought was even capable of performing the task.

And other than the fact that it left him the weakest, the blood drawing was by far the least unpleasant of what he had to endure. He was cut and stabbed and burned in all sorts of creative ways, with all manner of terrifying torture devices. Several times they injected him with something that made him violently ill. And it seemed as though his torturers genuinely believed that they were learning something from all of this.

Andrew screamed at the pain when it came. After, he cried, big choking sobs that trailed off into whimpers until he fell asleep in the cramped cage they left him in at the end of the day.

He became delirious. When they questioned him he would sometimes hallucinate that his parents were in the room, and he would cry and apologize to them for being such a mediocre son. For coasting through life taking them for granted, and then disappearing. His interrogators were less than impressed by this, and wondered if the researchers hadn't done too much too soon. But since they were unable to get anything useful out of him, they had few choices other than to turn him over for further experimentation.

During his lucid moments, Andrew would shout at the researchers, calling them backwards old alchemists, witch-doctors, and just about every variation of ’piece of shit sadists’ that he could come up with. They seemed more intrigued than insulted, which only made him angrier. After enough of their intrusions, he would turn to begging, asking for their mercy, asking for just an hour of respite. They pretended not to hear him.

After a few days, or perhaps longer, he thought he saw Kasai. She stood in the corner, her beautiful green eyes watching his agonizing ordeal with cold indifference. She did not care. Or was she simply unimpressed? Just as she had emasculated him when he wet himself in the face of death, she had come here to belittle his pathetic manner of coping with pain. Hadn't he done enough by coming here so that she would be spared? Couldn't she cut him just a little slack?

Maybe she had been in it to see him suffer from the start. Well, he would not give her the satisfaction.

He focused. He focused on anything and everything. At first it was quite hard, but after a few hours he found that he could endure the worst of their tortures by staring at a spot in the ceiling. For the rest of the day he did not make a sound.

The next day was the same, only after a few hours he began quietly observing the researchers as they worked. There were four women, all perhaps ten or fifteen years older than Andrew. They were directed by a very small, very frail looking old man who supervised their work and barked the occasional order. Andrew stared at him, focusing hard on the man’s demeanor, his words, what he seemed to take an interest in. They still had no idea how to extract the stone from him or if it was even possible. He had not told them because he was certain they would kill him if they knew. The old man mostly argued over whether a particular test result shed any light on this question. The results appeared largely useless, but not for lack of trying many different sorts.

It was not long before the old man became clearly uncomfortable under Andrew’s unbroken gaze. He ignored it for a few hours but in the end the session was called of a little earlier than usual. Andrew did not show any gratitude; he did not show anything. He was done showing his cards so easily---to researchers, to soldiers, or to Kasai, who had disappeared sometime into his period of focusing. But that was OK. If his suffering was to be endless, then he would have plenty of time to watch. To watch, and to wait.

The next few days he saw it all. Noticed it all, rather. For little details, things like footsteps or offhand comments, gave him a better idea of how many guards there were outside.

\----------

The chief doctor was even earlier for his end of day report than he had been the previous two days. Up until four days ago, the old man had been extremely punctual, not wanting to leave his specimen a moment early but not wanting to keep someone as important as the Supreme General waiting, either. But then three days ago he had broken the pattern and showed up early. And then earlier. And now, even earlier.

"Good evening, Supreme General," the old doctor greeted. The guard outside closed the door, leaving them alone.

Alexander’s office was fairly spartan. He had a single table on which several papers were piled, but no chairs. The walls were covered with various maps with pins sticking in them.

"Chief Doctor," he replied, "your report?"

"Ah, yes," the old man seemed uncharacteristically ill at ease, "the energy the boy is emitting has grown quite significantly this week. When you first brought him to me, it was increasing at a steady linear pace."

"I am aware," Alexander reminded him. He was a patient man, but also a very busy one. His time was too precious to spend on an old man who could not remember what they had already talked about.

"Yes of course, my apologies General," the old man murmured, distracted, "the important point is that that changed this week. I think he crossed a threshold of some kind a few days ago; our readings have been unbelievable since then."

"Have you discerned which of the experiments caused this? The runes, perhaps?"

"No, in fact I'm fairly sure it was none of them. Or rather, all of them---the application of intensely painful stressors was, in the final analysis, the most important variable."

"Has anything else changed since the threshold was crossed?"

"Well..." the question seemed to make the doctor uneasy.

"Doctor..." Alexander allowed some of his impatience to slip into his voice.

"He has stopped reacting to the pain entirely," the doctor said quickly, and Alexander could tell that there was more.

"And?"

"And...he watches, sir."

"Watches?"

"Watches. Observes everything and anything. My assistants, the guards, the rooms, the tools...and myself." He seemed to dislike even saying it. Alexander realized that the boy had unnerved this man, who had tortured countless men, women, and Choshu in his day without flinching. Indeed, while not truly a sadist, the chief doctor had always plainly taken pride in his work. This was not like him.

"Is that all?" Alexander asked disdainfully. It was no concern of his if the old man had suddenly lost his nerve.

"Yes...no other observations at this time. Sir."

Before the doctor could leave, the door swung open and three guards rushed in.

"Supreme General, the prisoner has escaped the Lab," the senior officer of the group stated immediately.

"What? Impossible!" The chief doctor shouted, "he's barely alive."

"You have given the word all of the castle guards to hunt him down?" Alexander asked calmly.

"Yes sir," the officer replied quickly.

"Even the off duty ones?" He asked it even though he knew the answer.

"Uh..."

"You go and arrange that immediately. In the meantime, you two will escort me and the chief doctor to the Lab," he told the others.

"Sir...are you sure you need me?" The elderly man asked nervously. Alexander did not dignify him with an answer.

In the Lab, a guard was having a wound on his foot tended by one of the assistant doctors. It seemed that Andrew had managed to get ahold of one of the sharper implements and concealed it. When the soldier had come to take him away, he had pretended to collapse from exhaustion. But before he could be lifted up, he had stabbed the soldier in the foot, right through his leather boot. Alexander would not have guessed he had the strength to do that when he first met the boy, much less after weeks of torture and isolation.

It seemed he had underestimated the boy, again. But he was not concerned. There was nowhere for him to go.

\-----------

Andrew had done his best, with his reflexes and his small weapon. But even with whatever boost to his powers of observation the stone gave him, he failed to notice that he was being driven into a large, open area. Once there, dozens of guards awaited him on all sides.

He did not care. He had been tortured and run an emotional gauntlet. But at that moment he was beyond those things. He was serene, he was in the zone. They came to get him; they were organized, athletic, trained, and he was none of those things. But he could see the flow of their movements as though it were a living thing, as though it could speak to him and tell him what he should do next. He dodged and weaved; when the opportunity presented itself he stabbed.

He did not know how long they continued to dance in this fashion. It seemed eternal, and yet not more than a blink if an eye before someone bellowed for them all to stop. The Mibu warriors instantly retreated, remaining in a circle around him a few feet away.

Alexander stepped into the circle. "You hold your own well, boy," he said in the same condescending tone he had used in the Maker’s cabin, "but it's time for you to stop this. There is nowhere for you to go.”

Andrew stared but said nothing. Alexander sighed. He unbuckled the belt which his swords rested on and dropped it to the ground. The boy did not return the courtesy of dropping the sharp medical implement he was brandishing. Not that Alexander blamed him, given the position he was in; but it would have been sporting.

It did not matter. Alexander’s men had been unable to put a mark on the boy, but they did not know what they were dealing with. He did, more or less.

Knowing that the boy would react but not act, he went in and swung a wide left hook. Andrew dodged easily, and lunged in at the general’s exposed side with his makeshift weapon. Alexander's elbow can down on the back of his head, hard, dropping the boy like a sack.

They all stood in awe. They had been struggling with the kid for the better part of an hour, and the general had taken care of things so easily. “I guess that's the General for you,” someone murmured, and everyone muttered agreement.

“What? Do you all find this impressive?” Alexander asked sharply, and they all winced, “That I was able to take down a small, pudgy boy with the very simplest of fakes?” An embarrassed silence followed. He let them stew in that for a few moments before continuing. “Get this boy cleaned up and have him brought to me.” Then, as an afterthought “With a chair.”

\---------------

Andrew was very disoriented. He was sitting across a table from the man who had brought him to this terrible place, who stood and looked down at him. When he had been brought in, Alexander had sent for a warm drink, which Andrew now had and was doing his best not to drink in one gulp. It had been days---or longer, he was not sure---since he had had food or drink that tasted like anything. Anything pleasant, anyway. The events of that day were a bit hazy in his memory, but he distinctly remembered getting his ass kicked by the man standing in front of him.

“Are you comfortable?” Alexander asked, though he did not sound as though he cared.

“Compared to being in a cage, or strapped to a table and tortured,” Andrew replied curtly.

“I am not going to apologize for that,” the general said, “the Stone of Arete could be the key to securing peace and prosperity for my people. If it could have been me on that table, I would have gladly taken your place. But I wouldn't spare anyone the experience if I thought it might get us the stone, not even my own mother.”

“That's...intense,” Andrew said with a small frown, “but if you don't care, then why am I here, and not back on that table?”

“It's become clear that the doctors are not going to find anything useful,” Alexander explained, “and after your performance today I thought you might make an excellent addition to our forces.”

“You want to recruit me?” Andrew asked incredulously.

“That's right.”

“I'm sorry, don't you think this conversation had a better chance BEFORE the torture?” He shouted.

“I realize that you don't have any fond feelings for the Mibu or for myself at this time,” Alexander admitted, “but I will allow you to make this choice freely. You may join our forces or you may live in our village and do as you please.”

“Can I leave? Go wherever I like?”

“I'm afraid we can't risk that. We can't risk another group, or Kasai, figuring out how to make use of your abilities or extract the stone for themselves. But other than that you would be free to live as you wish, within the confines of our territories and our way of life.”

“Some choice,” Andrew snorted, “anyway there's no way I'll help people who have tried to kill me and my friend, and have tortured me for days on end.”

“Yes...your _friend_ ,” Alexander said, emphasizing the last word.

“What about her?”

“Just how much do you know about Kasai?”

“I know that she's saved my life twice, and looked out for me. I know that she's never hurt me.”

“And you believe she did this out of the goodness of her heart?”

"I...no, not at first," Andrew admitted, but that was as much as he was willing to concede, "but she looked after me. When you showed up she was willing to risk dying to stop you from taking me."

"Let's not play games," Alexander replied dismissively, "you saw the state she was in. She was ready to give in to thoughtless blood lust, not sacrifice herself for a friend."

"You---you don't know that," Andrew said weakly, thinking back to the strange change in Kasai’s eyes. Alexander gave him a look that was not quite pity.

"You are not from these lands." It was a statement, not a question. Andrew wasn't sure how he knew, but he barely remembered anything that he'd said since he came to this place.

"I'm not."

"You are clearly human, but I take it you come from a place where there are no Choshu."

"That's right. Kasai is the only one I've ever seen, I never even knew about them before meeting her."

"I have fought against many Choshu in my life. I have seen their eyes change in hue the way that Kasai’s did the evening we met. It only happens when they completely lose themselves to the spirit of battle." Andrew sat in silence for a few moments.

"Andrew, you are new to this war-torn place, you do not know what the Choshu were like," Alexander said, breaking the silence, "if you did, you might not be so willing to risk your life for one."

"From what I understand, she's the only one left," he protested, "the only reason you people keep going after her is because you want to study her and her healing ability, the same terrible way that you've been studying me."

"Is that what she told you?" Alexander seemed incredulous, "Believe me when I say I'd like nothing better than forget her, but she makes it impossible."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know if you are aware, but the Mibu were the ones who wiped out the Choshu. And I was the one who led the effort, back before I was Supreme General. I had my reservations at the time but make no mistake, the Choshu were a barbaric, warlike peoples. When they conquered a village they would slaughter all of its inhabitants, including the women and children."

"Assuming I believe you," Andrew said, starting to sweat, "it still doesn't explain why you couldn't just leave Kasai alone now that you've already won."

"I would have. I have no desire to involve myself or my people with that butcher. But she will not give up her crusade for vengeance. I can understand it, of course. If the Mibu were killed off I would seek vengeance myself, even if it meant finding an honorable death. And when her vengeance took place outside of the village, in the form of minor skirmishes with our soldiers, I was inclined not to pursue it. But she has crept in and murdered civilians, leaving messages afterward so that we know it is her. Once, an infant even disappeared."

"She would never..." Andrew couldn't finish the sentence. He had turned very pale.

"She did not take credit for that one, and we never proved it was her. But our intelligence officers had sighted her near the village where it happened mere hours beforehand."

Andrew couldn't think if anything to say. On the one hand, he had no reason to believe anything this man was saying. On the other, he really didn't know the first thing about Kasai. He knew that killing came easily to her. But a baby? He felt like he wanted to throw up. But he wouldn't give this man the satisfaction.

"I realize this is a great deal to think about, and I understand if we have not earned your trust after the way you have been treated. We can discuss this at another time, after you've given it some thought." Alexander said, "Guards!" The door opened behind Andrew immediately. "Take this young man up to one of the guest quarters on the ground floor."

"Sir?" One of the two guards asked, unsure if he had heard right.

"Are you going to make me repeat myself?"

"No, sir!" Came the quick reply.

Once in the hall, they were approached by a soldier with a helmet on that obscured his eyes. "I'll take the prisoner from here." He said, and Andrew thought he recognized the voice.

"We've got the Supreme General’s orders," one of the guards said indignantly. Before Andrew could blink, a familiar dagger whipped out from the soldier’s side and the guard fell to the floor. He turned and impaled the second guard’s throat before he could react.

"Come on," Kasai hissed, turning to run. Not knowing what else to do, Andrew followed.

She seemed oddly familiar with the place, and actually managed to avoid confrontation to a greater extent than Andrew would have thought possible. They made their way out the same way as the castle’s waste did. It was not pleasant but at the end of it they were out.

They fled a fair distance, but after a few hours Andrew stopped. He needed to think; after a seemingly endless period of torture everything had happened so suddenly.

"What is it?" Kasai asked impatiently, "are you tired? We should get a bit further before we rest."

"Why are you doing this?" Andrew asked, "You can't get the stone. It's gone. Why risk yourself to set me free?"

"I don't like being in someone's debt," she said uncomfortably, "I owe you for what you did."

"That's very honorable of you, and I'm very grateful," he said, and meant it, "and this isn't the first time you've saved me. But why keep dragging me along? I slow you down; I make it easier for them to get to you. Now that you've paid your debt, why not send me on my way?"

"Don't be a fool," she snapped, "I've seen how you fare in the forest. Sending you off would be no better than killing you now, or leaving you with the Mibu."

"So how far does your debt go? Are you going to look after me for the rest of my life, if I can't get back home?"

"Why are you wasting our time with this," she snapped, "we can discuss this when we’re a safer distance away from Alexander’s stronghold."

Andrew did not answer at first. Kasai was about to walk over and physically carry him off when he finally spoke up. "They said...they said there was a uh...a baby. That you kidnapped it, maybe...killed it." He said in a voice barely louder than a whisper.

"And you believe them? After what they no doubt put you through in the Lab?!" She shouted.

"No...no I'm sorry," he said quickly, feeling distraught and off balance, "I just had to ask. Even as good as you've been to me, I couldn't go with you if...well you know." Kasai took a deep breath, and then sighed.

"They have drummed up that story about me to motivate people to hunt me down, to think of me as some sort of monster," she said, "I don't know if there ever was a baby in the first place. Until today, I have never set foot in a Mibu village since the day they exterminated everyone I have ever held dear."

"I'm sorry for asking," Andrew said, feeling relief.

"Well, on top of being weak and a coward, it appears you are also an ingrate," she said, but somehow from Kasai it almost sounded friendly, "especially since I'm going to help you get back where you came from."

"You are?" He exclaimed, "How?"

"Didn't you listen to the Maker at all? You just need to gain mastery over the stone." She chided.

"But he said I can't do that unless I spend a lot of time in battle," he pointed out, "and I wouldn't last five minutes in a battle."

"I think I can give you the next best thing," she replied, with a grin that made his skin crawl. "Now come on. We’ve wasted enough time here."


	6. Everything Right is Wrong Again

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, hello there. Wow, you're still here? Hm. I should probably say a word or two about this whole thing I've started, other than the lame summary I wrote at the start.
> 
> I don't know the exact timeframe, but quite possibly ten years ago I came across an Inuyasha fanfic called Present Time. I was reading quite a lot of fanfiction back in those days, especially of Inuyasha. There was always something about Inuyasha that drew me to it, some pieces of it that still appeal to me as a 29-year-old man in spite of the fact that it has been called "Dragonball Z for girls". The prejudice against half-demons, the time travel, the rivalry between the brothers and the whole to-do about the swords surrounding it, and Naraku---an excellent take on the old Faustian trope.
> 
> If Inuyasha is Dragonball Z for girls, then most Inuyasha fanfiction takes the most romance-novelesque aspirations of the series and puts them on speed. As fanfiction tends to, for fanfiction is where we fans go to push things to play out as we had wished them to. A lot of writers begin by looking at fiction they love or hate and saying "I could do this better", and then trying to. Fanfiction is a very direct attempt to do so, along with quenching the thirst of fans between seasons or between releases of a book, comic, or movie.
> 
> And that is exactly where Kasai sits in relationship to all the anime I have loved over the years, and in particular to Present Time. For Present Time had those romance novel aspects to it---famously (in some circles) it got itself deleted temporarily from Fanfiction.net for its lemon chapter. But like Inuyasha itself, this fanfic had something about it that draws me to go back and reread it to this day. Inuyasha adjusting to our time, the people in our time adjusting to him. How overmatched he is against modern opponents in some regards but how woefully underprepared he is in others. The tension of an even-more-tragic past that Alandrem (or Animealam?) weaves for him.
> 
> Kasai is an attempt to do, through original writing, what fanfiction writers often attempt to do---say "I can do better", not in a way disrespectful to the source of inspiration, but as a tribute to it.
> 
> And that is why I decided, in spite of it being an original piece, to have it on AO3. It's not as though there are no original pieces here. And this is the right community for Kasai; for Kasai is fanfiction in spirit if not in substance. If you have grown up watching and reading and loving anime and manga, there will be a lot here that you will no doubt recognize in terms of tropes. If those things are not your bag---I think it stands on its own. But it is as a tribute to those stories that brought me a great deal of delight that I write this story, not as an attempt to write The Next Great American Novel.
> 
> Kasai isn't going to be the next great anything. But hopefully it will be fun. It's certainly been fun to write so far.
> 
> Hope you enjoy.
> 
> P.S. if you like Inuyasha but haven't read Present Time, it goes without saying that I recommend it. Simply Googling "Inuyasha Present Time fanfic" will bring you to it. I warn you though---it was never finished, and likely never will be.

Over the ten or so months that followed, it was not an uncommon dream for Andrew to experience the jarring, shocking sensation he had felt when he was first pulled from his universe. This time, it went straight into a more stereotypical dream about sitting in one of his classes in the nude. Like any dream, everything was kind of fuzzy around the edges, and embarrassment dawned on him slowly, until he realized what must be going on.

"A dream," he said to himself, relieved and a little amused, "it's been years since I've had this one. Weird that it's specifically in my Survey of the Far East class, though."

"This isn't a dream." Kasai’s voice, in this context where it should not be, was jarring. The fuzzy edges of Andrew’s perception disappeared and everything snapped into focus. He WAS in his Survey of the Far East class, and everyone was looking at him. A few spared apprehensive glances over to Kasai, who looked quite imposing standing by the door in her strange outfit.

Panicked, Andrew shot to his feet, which only revealed more to his poor classmates. They averted their gazes and several made noises of disgust. "Sorry!" He said in a high pitched yelp, "uh...I...sleepwalk. Really sorry!" He slipped out the door, and Kasai followed.

Andrew’s dorm was fifteen minutes from the building they were leaving, even beating as hasty retreat as he was. The two of them turned a few heads. This was nightmarish. Andrew was not comfortable being naked around people, and he certainly wasn't comfortable being naked in front of everyone on campus. Kasai didn't say anything about their predicament; she followed silently behind him, which unnerved him even more. Running around campus buck naked with a bloodthirsty warrior in tow. What had his life become?

Unfortunately he had not thought about what he would do once he got to his dorm. It wasn't as though he had his keycard he needed to get into the building. In fact, he had lost it when he ditched the clothes he had been wearing the day the stone pulled him to another world. Not that it mattered; it wasn't as though he had anything in any pockets at the moment.

“Why have we stopped?” Kasai asked, and Andrew jumped. He was focused on his keycard problem, and hadn't noticed her walk up right behind him.

“I need to get in but obviously I don't have my key,” he sighed. She looked at him. She looked at the door. She reared back. “Wait, no--”

Too late. She gave the door what she probably thought was a light tap, which ripped the door open and tore the frame off of the wall a bit.

“Jesus Christ! Come on, let's go, quick quick,” Andrew stammered, rushing into the building.

Thankfully Andrew’s roommates had shown their usual diligence in locking their dorm’s door, which is to say that it was not only unlocked, but slightly ajar. So they entered without Kasai committing any more destruction of university property.

Most of his roommates were either elsewhere or still sleeping---it wasn't even noon yet, after all! But Mike, the guy with whom he shared his actual bedroom, was in the common area playing something on the Xbox One, eyes glued to the screen.

“Wait here,” Andrew said to Kasai, closing the dorm’s door and rushing into his bedroom.

She stood there, observing the boy Andrew’s age who was sitting with some strange device in his hand and staring at a box. The box was emitting noises, and closer inspection revealed that there were moving images on it as well. She wanted to ask about it, but she also did not know this person and had no reason to trust him. He seemed as weak and clueless as Andrew; she judged him to be no threat. But she didn't like taking unnecessary risks. So she watched.

Andrew came out from the room he had ducked into after only a couple of minutes with some of the strange clothes that people seemed to wear around this place. “I want to take a quick shower,” he said, as if she should know what that is, “are you OK here for a couple of minutes?” She grunted in lieu of a response, and he took this for an affirmation. He disappeared into another room without another word.

Moments later, she could hear the sound of running water. He must have decided to wash himself, though she had no idea how. His world was full of strangeness, and she had only been in it a few minutes.

How this had happened was not a question. The stone had brought them both, just as it had brought him to her world originally. But why? And why then?

“So, are you like, Andrew’s girlfriend or whatever?” The stranger asked suddenly, without looking away from the picture box. Kasai did not answer, she merely stared at him. Her lack of a response didn't seem to bother him, if he even noticed. “He’s never brought any girl over here except for that Alex chick, and I don't think there's anything going on there,” he offered, as though Kasai had said something or indicated an interest in having a conversation.

She remained silent. Eventually he glanced in her direction for a moment, before looking back at his game. “You’re kind of hot,” he said nonchalantly, and she bristled remembering when Andrew had said the same back in the Maker’s house. “What's with the crazy outfit? You a theater kid or something?” She offered him no reply.

The sound of water stopped. A few minutes later, Andrew came out, smelling fresher than he had at any time since she had met him. Interesting. “Come here,” he said, gesturing to his room, “let's get you something to wear that will blend in better than your outfit.”

“Good talking to you,” Mike said as she walked into their bedroom.

Andrew picked out the biggest, most baggy T-shirt he could find, and some sweat pants. “Here,” he said, handing them to her, “you put these on. I'll wait outside.”

“I don't care.” She said flatly.

“I don't know how long you're going to be here,” he said, “but as long as you are, you're going to need to blend in. Here, we try not to get naked in front of just anybody. We’ll talk about what the hell we should do next after you’ve changed.” He walked out and closed the door behind him.

Kasai was frustrated. This place was strange and its rules were uptight, like the Mibu’s. She supposed it was to be expected of a human tribe, no matter the world. She hated that Andrew was telling her what to do when she was the one who called the shots between them. She wondered if this was how his first day in her world had felt; confusing and frustrating. She stripped out of her Choshu uniform and slipped into the strange clothes of his world. They felt incredibly soft and light. She strapped her dagger back on and walked out of the room.

It was incredibly surreal to see Kasai dressed this way. She looked almost like a normal college student, save for the stump...and the dagger.

“You need to leave your dagger here when we’re out,” he told her. 

“The hell I do,” she growled.

“Kasai---”

“No,” she interrupted tersely, “you know this place better than I. I will listen to your advice. But I will not allow myself to be made vulnerable just because you have a false sense of comfort here.”

“For crying out loud there isn't anyone here who could so much as touch you,” he sighed, “and if you draw too much attention it could bring some people who have weapons far more powerful than anything where you're from.”

“You don't know the first thing about the tools of warfare in my lands,” she growled, “I will use your assistance but I do not need your protection.” Andrew gave her his most incredulous stare.

“Why don't you just hide the thing?” Mike called from the couch. They both turned to stare at the back of his head.

“What?” Andrew managed.

“Well if she wants to hold on to it, but it's going to draw attention, then take it and hide it.” He said in a disinterested tone.

Kasai was already thinking up ways to accomplish this, but the clothes she wore made it difficult.

“She doesn't have pockets and the thing is huge,” Andrew said stubbornly.

“Doesn't she have a purse or some shit?” Mike asked. Kasai looked down at her brown satchel. She looked back up and saw Andrew staring at her expectantly.

"It will be a tight fit," she grumbled, "and I will need to leave some things here."

"Not a problem," Andrew said with a grin, "thanks for the assist, Mike."

"You got it, bro."

After a moment’s thought, Andrew added, "Hey Mike, how long has it been since I stopped in?" 

"I dunno, maybe two days? We played some old school Smash Bros a couple of nights ago with Alex, that's the last time I really noticed you."

"Thanks man," then, to Kasai, "that was the night before we met."

"What? How is that possible?"

"That's a question I just kinda stopped asking. No offense, but a lot about you and your world seems impossible to me." 

"So it seems not only did it bring you back, and take me with you, but conveniently placed us not long after you left."

"I think it might be my fault," Andrew said sheepishly. "Don't give me that look. I've dreamed about going home most nights, and you know your torture---sorry, training---has been helping me use more and more of the stone’s power. I think I might have accidentally..."

"Dreamed us here?" Kasai asked skeptically.

"Dude what the fuck are you guys talking about?" Mike asked from the couch, "Are you practicing a play or someshit?"

"Uh...yeah...yes. Kasai is definitely in a play, which I am definitely helping her practice," Andrew said with too much emphasis.

"That's cool. I thought so based on how she was dressed earlier," Mike said to no one in particular.

"I can try to figure out how to get you back if you want," Andrew said, "or...you could stay. It's not so bad here, especially compared to being hunted down all the time." They had talked about this before, a little. She had not given him a straight answer and she wasn't about to now. "Either way we should plan as though you're going to be here for at least a little while."

"I'm already wearing these ridiculous clothes and hiding my dagger. What more do I have to do?" She grumbled.

"Let's go talk to a friend of mine. She can help get you some better clothes, maybe she’ll have ideas about what to do next."

"You’re going to tell her all about me?" Kasai asked uncertainly. She had learned to trust Andrew a little but that didn't mean she automatically trusted who he trusted.

"No, she'd think I was crazy. I'm going to...make something up that will convince her to give us the help we need," he said feebly, and Kasai looked about as confident in this plan as he felt. "Not to worry...I'm on this."


	7. Sorting Out

This world had made him weak.

No. Not the world. He could feel the faint traces of battle somewhere in this place. It was just this part of it, this disgustingly peaceful part.

He collected his thoughts. He had come for a reason. His home had been wrung dry; the warfare there nourished him like steak from an emaciated cow. He needed fresh blood. But he had not expected to end up in a place completely at peace. He sensed it was a great distance between himself and a true battle.

That was fine. The work would be harder, but the payoff would be much greater. He reached his senses out into the hearts of the humans near him, and it was not long before he found what he needed.

A boy, old enough to be a warrior but physically weak and clearly inexperienced. But there was a tension within him; despite the physical proximity of many other people he felt isolated. And he had certain...urges.

He could use this boy. 

\-----------------

"Here," Alex said, handing Kasai the clothes she had picked out, "try these." 

Kasai looked at the clothes, then at Alex, then back to the clothes, her eyebrows furrowing in transparent confusion. "Try?" She offered, after a moment.

"Put them on?" Alex replied. Kasai stared. "OK, come with me." She led the strange woman to the changing rooms and got her to one. Kasai began stripping down with the door open, until Alex asked her what she was doing.

"I am taking off the clothes you gave me at your home to put on these ones," Kasai replied, wondering what this girl’s problem was.

"You have to close the door behind you first."

"What door?"

Alex pulled the door closed from the outside. "There should be a latch in there to keep it closed."

"Why bother?" Kasai asked, getting annoyed, "No one here is a threat to me."

"Just...please do it," Alex pleaded, having gone to a place far beyond exasperated early in the outing. She heard a long suffering sigh from inside, but after a few moments the door latched closed.

Alex now had some time to think, for all the good it would do her. Nothing about this situation made sense. Andrew had shown up, looking a good twenty pounds lighter and with a scar across his face. His explanation for the change was weak and his explanation for this strange, gigantic, one-handed woman who had clearly never shopped in her life---or worn pants apparently---was weaker.

He said she was a refugee from a foreign country, though she had no recognizable accent. Everything about her was fishy, from the way she reacted to the most basic requests and situations to the way she seemed on guard and ready to jump someone at any moment.

His change of appearance he had simply flat out denied. "I've always had this scar, since I was a little kid," he told her, "you can just see it more now because I'm feeling kind of hot." She had checked some iPhone pictures from earlier in the month. He was heavier in them, and there was no scar. She had no idea what he had got himself into, but she at least trusted that Andrew believed this person was not dangerous, if he was willing to leave the two of them alone.

Kasai emerged after a few minutes. Alex balked. She had all four pairs of pants on, and all five shirts. "Can we go now?" She asked.


	8. Scratching an Itch

Kasai was bored. It had been over two weeks since they had arrived in Andrew’s strange word and they were no closer to figuring out what their next move was. She slept on his friend Alex’s floor, though it was clear that this girl did not trust her. Apparently she trusted Andrew enough to invite in someone who looked and behaved like Kasai without too much protest, but this situation could not be maintained forever.

On some days Andrew went somewhere he called ’class’. He had expressed his feeling that it was pointless but still seemed to feel obligated to go. The first week she had barged in on one of them because a pudgy little human---Andrew called him ’security’---had insisted she prove she knew someone who was supposed to be there.

Apparently the whole thing was socially embarrassing for Andrew, so at least Kasai had had that bit of entertainment. She was halfway tempted to do it again, after wandering around the campus for hours. But something in the air caught her attention. The scent reminded her a little of warriors on a battlefield. She followed it.

After perhaps ten minutes of walking she saw a strange, rounded building. All of the buildings in this place were unusual, but this one was particularly unnatural in its shape, and had what to Kasai seemed like a huge amount of glass. Through it she could see people standing on strange contraptions, moving their legs and arms but not going anywhere.

She walked in. The smell that drew her was not sweat, though that was part of it. There was a certain scent that humans took on when they were in the heat of battle, excited and terrified by the presence of physical danger. The people doing the repetitive motions were clearly in no danger.

Kasai walked beyond a structure with two girls seated behind it. One of them called after her and started to get up to follow, but the other told her not to bother.

She followed the scent down a set of stairs, and through a hallway, to an open door that led to a large room. Young men of around Andrew’s age were standing around, watching two of them engage in hand to hand combat. They may have been close in age to Andrew, but the similarities ended there; these were muscle-bound, lean, physically fit men, sporting for a fight.

She watched the two who were going at it. They stood on some sort of platform with ropes around it. They circled each other cautiously, throwing out small jabs to test one another for weaknesses. They wore strange attire---some sort of cushion over their heads, some clumsy looking gloves over their hands. Yet they were experienced fighters---that much Kasai could tell just from watching their motions. Not as experienced as the people of her world, and nowhere near as experienced as she was---but much more experienced than anyone she had encountered in this world so far.

A much older man was barking instructions to them. To both of them. It was then that Kasai realized that this was a training session, not true combat. These people were all part of the same squadron, and the older man was their superior officer. She could not hold back the grin that came across her face.

"They will fight harder if they are not fighting against one of their own," she said, loudly. Everyone stopped and turned to stare at her.

"Can I help you, girl?" Asked the old man in clear annoyance.

"I want to fight," she said, and it was almost pleading.

"No," he replied without hesitating, "get lost."

"It will be good experience for your boys," she argued, her yearning for the fight overcoming her own annoyance at this man’s dismissive attitude.

"This is not a co-ed league, and my _boys_ ," he said, emphasizing the last words to mock her, "do not fight _girls_."

She crossed the distance between them before anyone could react. She did not touch him, but stood very close, staring down at him as though he were an insect begging the be crushed underfoot.

"I want to fight," she said quietly, but her voice and her demeanor were thick with blood lust. The trainer took a step back, uncertain. She gave him a patronizing smirk and walked beyond him, the. Jumped up onto the platform with the fighters.

She walked between them and they, too, backed up. "Coach?" One of them called down uncertainly.

The older man cursed under his breath and then shouted, "Carlos, come down for now. Jason, you'll be sparring with this rookie. Go easy. Someone get her some gear!"

"You aren't going to have the luxury of going easy," Kasai said to the confused man in front of her. They offered her the gloves and the thing they wore on their heads, but she refused.

"You have to put them on or you won't be fighting anyone," the one called Coach told her firmly.

"Try and stop me," she said smugly, and without another word she lashed out and kicked poor unsuspecting Jason squarely in the chest. It launched him off of the platform and into some of his fellows below. Despite the apparent spontaneity of the attack, she had been fairly careful; she knew she was not supposed to kill anyone in this place. She was pretty sure she'd cracked at least one rib, however.

"Nothing personal, kid," she said down to the fallen warrior, "but you really shouldn't let your guard down when a wild animal has just walked into your home and bared its fangs."

"What the fuck is wrong with you you psycho bitch?!" Carlos shouted, with everyone else joining him in a similar fashion. Kasai reared back her head and laughed with genuine pleasure.

"Why don't all of you come up here and teach me a lesson?" She goaded, staring Carlos in the eyes.

"That's enough!" Coach shouted, "we need to get Jason to the nurse. Practice is over. Girl, I never want to see you here again, you hear me?"

No one moved. "Coach, why don't you take Jason to the nurse, we’ll take care of this," Carlos said, climbing up to the platform.

"I said--" 

"Coach!" Said someone else on the ground. The older man looked at Jason. He looked back up at Kasai. He decided, in that moment, to help his student rather than bother with this lunatic any longer. He and a couple of other members of the team left with Jason in tow.

"Just you?" Kasai said, looking Carlos up and down, "Are you sure you don't want any help?"

"Just me, one on one," Carlos confirmed, glaring at her.

"How noble," she mocked.

\-------------

Andrew barely had the presence of mind to gather his things as he bolted out of the class. His heart raced. Kasai was fighting. It wasn't a question, he was aware of it and didn't wonder at the sudden knowledge. Kasai was fighting somewhere in a world she didn't understand. What if she killed some innocent person? Or what it they had a gun, and---but not, who would have a gun on campus? But if she was fighting...who knew what the circumstances were.

He followed his instincts and found that his feet brought him to the campus gym. She was fighting in the gym? At least there wouldn't be guns there, almost certainly. He walked in and was stopped immediately by a girl who called out from behind the desk.

"You need to show us your student ID," she said with clear annoyance. Andrew looked at her. What had he done to get under her skin? "Well?" She added, and he realized he'd been standing there without saying anything.

"Oh, uh," he stammered, and fumbled for his wallet, then dug around for his ID, finally producing it, "here you go." She scrutinized it as if it would reveal him for a fraud, but ultimately sighed and waved him along.

She was in the boxing room, where the boxing team practiced---but that wasn't who was in there with her. It was the university’s MMA club; they had a sign on the door advertising as much. And when Andrew got there, Kasai was kicking their ass. One at a time at first, then in twos and threes. None of them lasted more than a few minutes.

Kasai had fun at first, but quickly grew bored. These were mere boys, in spite of their age. None of them had seen real action in their lives; it was all too obvious from how unprepared they were to even recognize a real threat when it stood in front of them. She could have killed them all in the first five minutes and none of them would have reacted in time.

Save possibly for one. He watched her quietly from a corner, never getting involved, never saying a word. He observed her in action and it wasn't just to satisfy his curiosity. He was cautious and he was clearly smart; Kasai wanted to draw him out most of all. He was the only one in the room with any promise.

“Kasai, what the fuck,” Andrew shouted after collecting himself, “this is not how we behave around here!”

“Try and stop me,” she replied petulantly, and then, to his chagrin, she stuck her tongue out. He didn't even know people in her world did that. It was so strange, so childish, to see on the face of this woman he'd seem split open hardened soldiers without batting an eyelash.

“I...come on! What are you doing here?! These guys aren't soldiers, they aren't anything close!”

“Hey back off asshole,” one of the uninjured fighters snapped, “unless you want to join your girlfriend in the ring.” 

Andrew looked at this big, angry jock who knew more about martial arts than he knew about video games. Not long ago---apparently, on this world’s clock, just a few weeks ago---he would have very nearly soiled himself at this sight of this guy getting up in his face. But since the. He'd been tortured, chased by soldiers---and met Kasai. There was nothing in college that was as scary as she was.

“Are you joking?” He shot back, “half of you are writhing on the ground. And my ’girlfriend’? What are you, in Middle School?” Sensing an easier prey than awaited him in the ring, the athlete moved towards Andrew.

“Enough,” came a deep, curt voice from the corner. “You're all embarrassing yourselves.” Kasai grinned. The man in the corner walked up and pulled himself into the ring.

He was huge. Almost as tall as Kasai, and built like a brick wall. He reached out his left hand. “Omar Haddad,” he said simply. Kasai looked at his hand, still unused to this strange custom. He reached hers out and took his, squeezing it firmly.

“I am Kasai, of the Choshu,” she said, and released his hand. Everyone watched in complete silence.

“I don't know what that means,” he said, and smiled with genuine warmth, “but I do know that you just kicked half of my team’s asses, and I'd like to have a go at you. How does that sound to you?”

She did not answer in words, but her body language spoke for itself. She was coiled tight, ready to spring. In truth she had not really relaxed in the first place; she was ready to break him in half if he had tried something during the handshake. But now she was willing to show him how ready she was.

He shifted his footing into a stance, his hands clenched into fists and ready to fly at a moment’s notice.

And Andrew knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he had to stop them.

“Knock it off Kasai, let's just go!” He shouted, a bit desperately. Neither if them responded, neither took their eyes off of the other. “Come on!”

“Dude, shut the fuck up,” someone in the group hissed, to murmurs of agreement. This was not going well. Andrew didn't have many cards to play. What would make Kasai listen?

He really only had one card. One move that she would respect.

“Fine,” he said, dropping his stuff on the ground and walking towards the ring, “fine, Kasai! I'll fight him.” Kasai snapped her head to face him, then turned back to her opponent.

“Do you mean it?” She asked, with unmasked surprise. Andrew took a deep breath, and sighed.

“I'm serious,” he muttered with resignation. She stared at Omar for a moment before relaxing her stance.

“What? Really?” He asked her incredulously. She shrugged and climbed out of the ring.

Feeling his heart beating in his chest, Andrew walked up to take her place.


	9. Spectacle

The months after his escape from the Lab had been challenging, though after torture it didn't seem quite as bad. Kasai lived up to her promise of working with him to master the stone, but it seemed at times more like an excuse to beat the crap out of him than a genuine attempt to teach him anything.

"Again," she said curtly, after a bout that had gone particularly badly for him.

"I don't think I can," he wheezed. His left eye was swollen shut, and his head was pounding in excruciating pain. He was covered in bruises and his muscles felt sore from sheer exertion. He had never exercised so consistently or intensely in his whole life, never mind the beating that came with it.

"We need to simulate the battlefield," she snapped, "do you think a soldier will even give you this long to whine before taking your life?" 

Despite his condition, he gave a long suffering sigh that he knew always got under her skin, and pulled himself up. He got himself into the defensive stance she had taught him, though it still felt quite awkward. Without another word she lunged at him, swiping straight for his swollen eye. He panicked and jerked away out of fear, and as a result did not see her knee rise up and viciously strike him in his stomach. He doubled over, unable to breathe.

After observing him for a minute with look of contempt, she said "If you can tell me something valuable you learned, we can conclude for now."

He turned onto his back and breathed in big gulps. "Other than how much of a---"

"If you finish a sentence without telling me what you gained from that exchange, we will continue for another hour." She threatened, and he shut up and thought.

"You knew I would be freaked if you tried to hit my eye," he said.

"And?" She prodded, her tone encouraging.

"And...you used that to distract me from what you were really planning to do." He finished, working it out as he said it.

"Both feints and battle itself turn on being better at reading your opponent than they are at reading you," she explained, "even though you've been given a gift for it by the Maker you're still too wet behind the ears to notice even the most basic stuff." She offered him her hand, and pulled him to his feet when he took it.

"But do you have to be so savage about teaching me about it? Couldn't you hold back a bit?" He grumbled.

She gave him a wide grin, and he knew that she had held back a lot.

\----------------------- 

Omar was big, intimidatingly so. He wasn't quite as tall as Kasai, but where she was sleek and lean, he had a frame like an enormous rectangle, with muscles for his muscles. And he was coiled in what to Andrew’s eyes looked like perfect form, ready to break Andrew’s face in half a second with his fists, or block or dodge anything worth avoiding that came his way. This guy was in another league from his teammates; he had all the air of a professional or someone seriously aspiring to become one.

Andrew, on the other hand, was probably about a fourth of this guy’s mass and had exactly zero experience in the ring. Of course, that did not mean that he had no experience at all. He got himself into a defensive stance and hoped he could come up with some kind of tactic that might work against this giant.

From his side, Omar had appraised his new opponent and made a few quick judgments within the first few minutes. The kid was small, and Omar was way out of his weight class. The scar across his cheek might mean some kind of street experience, which was something. The fact that he knew the monster that had systematically taken apart Omar’s team, and that she had been willing to let him sub in, was also interesting. Was she his teacher?

"Nice of you to volunteer to get pummeled just to protect your girlfriend," he offered, not making a move.

"Have you seen your teammates?" Andrew replied, smirking. "I promise you that she is not the one I'm trying to protect."

Omar felt himself getting pissed off at the implication, but pushed it down. Cheap trash talking was not going to get him riled up and sloppy. He didn't know what kind of moves the kid had, so he'd be careful. But he was betting he could end this one quickly and then, hopefully, get back to his original match.

He made the first move, and Andrew was almost relieved. Omar threw a heavy left jab, which Andrew saw coming a mile away and moved out of the way of. That much Omar had thought a possibility. What he hadn't expected was for Andrew to jump back out of the way of the low kick Omar had aimed at his shin.

Andrew felt pretty proud of himself for avoiding that one. Granted he probably couldn't withstand a punch in the face from this guy, but if his legs got injured and he couldn't run, he was done. He just wished that he had projected an aura of confidence. Instead, when he realized what was happening, he had emitted a high pitched yelp before dodging. The room filled with the laughter of the MMA fighters.

Omar wasn't laughing. He spared a glance at Kasai and saw she had a smug grin. She thought this kid had a shot.

He had let the kid’s quick response stop the flow, a mistake he wouldn't make again. He launched into a series of punches and kicks. He wasn't holding back; he went at it as though the kid were a seasoned pro. And he certainly dodged like one---Omar couldn't land a single hit on the pipsqueak. But most pros don't cry out like little girls every time they dodged a close one.

"Jesus Christ!" He cried when a blow just missed his chin. "Holy shit!" When he had to fall onto his back to avoid a body blow.

The group ate it up like it was some kind of choreographed comedy routine. Kasai sighed. Andrew would never intimidate anyone in his life. But he was doing very well. Maybe he would even find a way to win. Though there was one thing he'd have to do if he wanted that to happen.

"You think if you keep dodging he might slip and break his neck eventually?" She shouted up. The laughter got louder.

"Fuck you," Andrew replied in a shrill voice as he stumbled back from Omar’s onslaught, "I've got this."

Omar stopped, feeling frustrated but not wanting to show it. "She's right," he said quietly, "even if you could do more than dodge, the weight difference between us is too much. I'm impressed at how well you've managed to read me, but we should stop. I only need to get you once, and you clearly can't do shit to me."

Andrew thought about this. "Will you promise not to fight Kasai if we stop?"

Omar balked. "Are you still on about that? She can take care of herself, kid."

"We covered that," Andrew replied, sighing, "guess we’re not stopping."

"Are you serious? How do you think this is going to end?" Omar demanded, getting angry.

"Only one way to find out."

Andrew had watched Omar's moves and he thought he had a good read on it. The way he figured it, he had one shot, and he had to make it count.

Omar stepped forward, and Andrew prepared to play his one card. And then the big guy opened his arms. Crap! He was going for a grab! He totally forgot these guys could wrestle too! Omar’s huge body did not leave many avenues for escape. And Andrew realized that he had no room to back up.

So he dove. He made it under Omar’s arms---barely---and went under his legs, and rolled. It wouldn't have worked if he had been any taller, or Omar any shorter.

"Really, kid?" Omar spat, annoyed, "and you couldn't even attack once you were behind me? This is just pathetic."

"He's right," Kasai called up, to the general enjoyment of the group.

Andrew didn't say a thing. He focused. He was running out of stamina. If Omar came at him with something he'd already tried, he thought he could pull this off. If he tried something new, he might just catch Andrew this time.

"What are you trying to prove?" Omar goaded, but still Andrew said nothing. Kasai had seen him get like this a few times, during their sparring or when they confronted some Mibu soldiers together. This was when Andrew was at his best.

It was clear that Andrew had the hardest time dodging the grab, so Omar launched with that, moving faster this time so that there wasn't any space for a big dodge.

Instead of dodging, however, Andrew stepped into the grab---and brought his arm around, slamming the base of his palm as hard as he could into a spot just under Omar’s left ear. The sound of the blow echoed in the room. Kasai marveled at the precision of the blow; it was a move she had taught him but could never have pulled off so exactly. That was the Stone of Arete for you.

Omar crumpled immediately, much to Andrew’s dismay. "A little help up here!" He shouted in a strained voice as he found himself holding hundreds of pounds of dead weight. No one else had realized what had happened, except for Kasai, who calmly leapt up to the ring.

She pulled Omar off of him like she was handling a stuffed animal, plopping the big fighter safely on the ground. Andrew fell back into his rear, gasping for breath.

"You’re welcome," she said with a smirk. He stared at her with the intensity of a drowning man.

"You see," he panted, "you see why I had to stop you?" She stared, but didn't say anything. That wasn't good enough for him. He pushed himself to his feet and walked up close to her. "If you had pulled that move just now," he said in a voice barely above a whisper, gesturing to his fallen opponent, "you would have broken his neck. Things are different here. You can't just go picking fights because it's fun."

"Then what am I supposed to do?" She snarled in a low voice. He put his hand on her arm---more to support his weight than to comfort her.

"We’ll figure it out," he assured her, "now come on. I am stupid hungry. And Alex should be waiting for us."

As everyone in the room stared at them in silence, they walked out together.


	10. Ronin

"Ack," was all Andrew could manage when Kasai’s palm collided into his sternum like a freight truck. The force of it knocked him back a few feet from where he had been standing. He had gone through this sort of thing with her enough at this point that he almost managed to land gracefully. Almost.

"Not bad," she remarked of his ability to take the hit without falling apart.

"It would have been a LOT better to not get hit at all," he grumbled. She observed him carefully. She had hit him much harder than she ever had but she did not smell that small tinge of blood that came with bruising. Even if he had taken the hit well, he still had taken most of its force. She had been taking a risk by hitting him so hard---a few months earlier she was sure it would have broken bones.

But she had confirmed what she had been coming to suspect only recently: he was becoming harder to injure. She doubted he was aware of it. Despite his apparent keenness at observing others he was not very self aware in general.

"Mind if we call it a day?" He asked, breathing heavy, "I need to get back and clean up before my first class." She nodded her assent and they made their way to where his car was parked.

Every morning since the fight with the MMA team, they had come to the school’s inter mural field in order to spar. This was Andrew’s answer to Kasai’s restlessness, primarily. But it was also an attempt to continue what they had begun in the other world---improving Andrew’s mastery of the stone’s powers.

As he backed out of his parking space, he grumbled that he would be feeling that last blow for days. Kasai ignored him; no matter how much more durable he became he still seemed to be the same whiner he was the day she met him. She stared out the window at the buildings and cars they passed on their way back to the heart of campus. The sights and technologies of this world still seemed such a marvel to her.

The sparring sessions were a much needed means to working off aggression and the frustration of feeling stuck in a small corner of a world she did not understand. The rest of the day was largely spent familiarizing herself with the campus, observing the people in it. She did it for no particular purpose; it was simply her habit to know her surroundings well in case such knowledge eventually provided a tactical advantage.

Sparring in the morning scouting all day. Spending time with Alex and Andrew as they played their "video games" or drank ale or whatever strange and seemingly pointless things they enjoyed. And sometimes, if she was restless enough and Andrew noticed sparring again in the evening before turning in.

As the weeks continued, this routine settled into a sort of rhythm. Kasai found that she did not mind it as much as she had at first. It was certainly nice not to have to worry about Mibu soldiers catching her off guard. She had noticed the enforcers here carried strange-smelling objects strapped to their hips and ascertained that they were some sort of weapon. Still it was clear that they would give her no trouble so long as she avoided appearing as though she would make any trouble herself. As they grew used to the sight of her on campus she found they stared less often when she walked in their vicinity.

Would she be stuck in this pattern for the rest of her life? She was sure that Andrew would gain mastery over the stone in time. He picked things up with remarkable speed. Eventually he would be able to send her back.

But did she want him to?

\-------------------------

The forest was ancient, one of the few left largely untouched by the spread of humanity, forgotten in all but the oldest and best preserved of their stories. But the members of the group which gathered there could not think of it as anything but young. Its history was a blink in the eye of the forests they had seen grow and thrive and ultimately perish in their lifetimes. Some had planted the seeds of this forest with their own hands. That is, those that had hands with which to plant.

"We have all felt it," said one, on some analogy of speaking that is intelligible only to their kind. Their was a noise of agreement.

"War has come." Volunteered another.

"War has come many times to the humans," complained a young one impatiently, "it continues among many of their tribes at this very moment. Why summon us all here now?"

"Your---" and here a word was said that meant father, only it didn't, and predecessor, only not that either. And it wasn't in fact a word at all. "---was not so lacking in perspective, young lord."

"You dare?"

"Enough of this. The meeting has been called because this is not one of the little wars that the humans know. This is a war of all; it will burn this Earth until it can support life no longer, and it will draw all of us in. It is a war the likes of which few even here can remember."

A silence fell over the group. It continued a moment later, "we must send a capable vassal to quel this before the problem truly begins."

"Who shall we send?" Asked the young one, eager to stand out, "We have many warriors in our tribe that we would happily lend to this cause."

"Send the Ronin." Rasped the eldest present. All fell into reverent quiet at the first communication front it in generations.

"Surely such a thing represents precisely what we aim to avoid," the young one said finally, too clueless to see how his behavior that day would dishonor his kin.

"He is forged of human war and human war is what he will be used to stop," said the elder simply. He said no more after this, and so eventually it was arranged for his advice to be followed. The Ronin was awakened, and sent to an American college town.

\--------------------------

The three of them spent the evening in Alex’s dorm. Kasai sat at the little table by the fridge, carving down a large branch with her knife. This habit had unnerved Alex at first, and then annoyed her. But Kasai always cleaned up afterwards, and Alex came to feel that anything that calmed the strange girl was a good idea.

Alex and Andrew were doing the weird ritual with things in their hands that seemed to control what happened on the flat surface---the screen---which endlessly fascinated them. It all seemed very nonsensical to her. Some highly random images would appear on the screen, and then one of them would jump up and frantically do some motion repeatedly until the image changed again. She would have thought there was some religious aspect to all of it were it not for the laughter in Alex’s case often a shrieking laughter that hurt Kasai’s sensitive ears---which the whole thing seemed to provoke from them. They said it was a game of some kind, and she supposed she believed them.

She still did not know what to make of their lives, in which peace was so taken for granted. She had heard many people casually talking about their futures, which she found striking in two respects. First, she had not thought more than a few days ahead for longer than she could remember. Second, none of these people seemed to consider the possibility that their plans would be disrupted by war. It wasn't even dismissed as a possibility. This place must have been at peace for a very long time.

Andrew sensed it before Kasai did. She noticed him tense up and stop in the middle of his game just before she noticed the strange smell from the other side of the door. "Step back from the door," Andrew said with quiet intensity. 

"What are you---" Alex began but before she could finished the door crashed loudly and fell into two pieces. Alex couldn't tell what had happened, but then saw that Kasai was blocking a sword of some kind with her knife. Her eyes followed the sword to the one holding it and she saw what seemed to be a Samurai’s suit of armor. It held the sword with both hands.

"Alex get back into your bedroom!" Andrew shouted, and this sudden sound startled the combatants into action. The swordsman reared back to strike again, but Kasai got low and rushed in with her knife. His sword missed her and cut a chunk out of the table. Her knife found purchase---she jammed it into the armor’s joint at the armpit.

"What - what's happening," Alex stammered, in shock. Alex didn't answer, staring intensely at the scene.

Something was wrong. Kasai didn't feel any resistance from inside the armor. The arm she was under moved and she was suddenly punched in the gut. He was strong---the blow winded her. But she couldn't afford to let that slow her down. She yanked the knife from where it was stuck.

He struck at her again with the sword, and this time she stepped back to avoid it. He sliced at her repeatedly, and she concentrated on dodging attempting to figure out the best way to turn the situation to her advantage. Andrew grabbed Alex and pulled her to the ground, laying on top of her.

It was better than nothing, but wouldn't do much if the swordsman turned his attention to them, thought Kasai as she watched the sword cut effortlessly through the fridge, the sofa and anything that got into its way.

As the swordsman reared back again she took another chance, lunging forward and kicking him savagely in the chest. He was knocked out the door, his back hitting the railing outside. She stared in his eyes as he went, and found nothing staring back. It was a hollow suit.

She rushed out to knock him over the side, but he was ready for her. He backhanded her and she stumbled back. He moved quickly to cut her in half, but she rolled out of the way in time. The sword cut through the wall with astonishing ease. 

"Kasai, draw him to the field if you can!" Andrew shouted from inside, worried about the attention they might be drawing. This seemed an immensely stupid request to Kasai, given that they were fighting for their lives.

But the swordsman---the armor seemed focused on her. She backed up a few steps and he slowly advanced towards her. She leapt all the way back to the tree behind the building, risking that the armor would turn and kill Andrew and Alex before she could get back. Instead, it ran towards her. It seemed she would be able to fulfill Andrew’s request after all.

Andrew raced to the door and watched the two figured moving quickly away. "Alex, please get your car and meet me at the intramural field as soon as you can," he said, and then ran after them.

Alex stared at the demolished doorway mutely for a moment before the request registered. "Wait what? Go after that maniac?"

\---------------------------

He was born in war.

Historians gave the time of his conception a quaint name to delineate it from what came before and after---"The Warring States Period", or Sengoku Jidai in his native tongue. But from the inside it did not seem to be a mere period of time, but a state of being. A state of perpetual war. A state in which the only legitimate craft was siegecraft and the only legitimate practice swordsmanship. There was no room for domestic peace or tenderness; the family was but a vessel for producing a feeding more soldiers.

The sword and armor had been as a set an heirloom, passed down from fathers to sons who took it to battle and covered it in blood and Earth.

The lineage broke with its last master; an only son who was sent to battle in the place of his dead father. His mother begged him not to go, but his pride would not allow him to turn his back on his duty. He died a dog’s death in his first and only battle.

Yet the line was not broken for the family's duty continued to be carried on by the suit and the sword. For a long time it carried the boy’s body within; local folklore and art depicted the terror of the corpse-samurai. But in time the body rotted away entirely, and later takes spoke only of an animate and savage armor.

The historians say that when Tokugawa united the land the Sengoku Jidai ceased. But he did not cease. They called him Ronin, but this was wrong, for he had a master in war itself, whom he served faithfully. He sought any of the traipses of it and answered it with violence. Anyone holding a weapon was not safe from his relentless campaign.

Eventually he began to threaten the fragile peace of the land, and older forces than him had to take action to see to it that he was reigned in. The eldest spirits of war detained him and gave him a position among the ranks of their army.

"This land has paid us its due in blood," he was told, "but our time will come again here and elsewhere. And you will be called upon to serve us, when that time has come."

And it did come, many times and in many places.

But this time was different.

This time he could sense his masters’ fear.

And more than ever before, he sensed a kindred spirit in his adversary.

But that did not matter. All soldiers are kindred spirits. And all must meet on the battlefield on their respective sides.

This soldier would die for his masters, masters who called him Ronin even though he served them more faithfully than any other samurai had served any other lord.  
\----------------------------

Rugby practice was winding down for the evening when a few of them thought they saw something moving in the sky. It was going up and down some distance away.

"Is it a ball?" One asked, squinting.

"It's getting closer," another observed.

"Looks like...there's two of them?"

Kasai barely made it to the field; the armor had caught her on the last jump back and she had barely managed to block his attack with her knife. They came crashing down to the ground, but neither lost their footing. It pressed down on its blade, attempting to overpower her. Kasai conceded that it might be the strongest foe she had faced, including the fellow Choshu she had sparred with. But she was no slouch either.

Using only the strength in her left arm, she pushed back as hard as she could. Slowly, she drove the armor’s sword back towards it. 

"Is this some kind of performance?" A stunned member of the Rugby team asked himself more than anyone.

"Should we try to stop them?"

"Should we call the cops?"

Kasai had to fight for every inch, but succeeded in getting its sword out of her line of attack. She brought her right elbow through the hole in his defense that she had created, smashing it into his mask and following through to demolish the entire helmet.

The armor stumbled back but the moment the helmet shattered a piercing, unearthly shriek filled the air and kept on going without showing any signs of abating. The Rugby team collapsed and clutched at their ears, desperately trying to shut out the noise. They needn't have wasted their efforts, for there was no real sound for their ears to interpret.

For Kasai the shriek did not produce pain, but understanding. She heard in it the sound of parents and children as invading armies swept their their villages. The sound of disappointed sons and husbands and fathers who would not survive the battlefield to return to their families. The sounds of dreams crushed against raw ambition and ambition crushed under the boots of rival generals. She heard the cries of war.

She focused as her now headless foe poised to attack again. If taking out his head did not work, then she could see only one viable option. The muscles in her left arm felt like they were on fire from the strain of the previous effort, but she forced herself to ignore it and prepare for further exertion.

She didn't wait for him to attack; she got so low that she was almost on the ground and sprinted towards him. He had adapted to her low attacks, but it was clear that he was simply not as experienced defending from below as from squarely from the front. Still, she imagined that this would only work once, so she would have to make it count.

She just made it under the blade as it moved down to cut her in half, and stabbed her knife down savagely into the elbow joint in the armor’s right arm. She followed her momentum and pushed until the arm ripped off, taking the sword with it. She kicked the armor’s body back, let go of her knife and grabbed for the flying limb.

The arm writhed in her hand. She tucked it under her right arm and grabbed the hilt of the sword. The glove tightened its grip, but she pulled hard and a few of the fingers popped off. She got the sword free.

The feeling of holding the sword was...not what she expected. All she had intended to do was disarm her opponent and use the weapon he had cut through wood, concrete and metal with against him. But it was immediately clear that there was something special about the sword; it more than the armor gave off that desperate, maddening feeling of the battlefield.

He faced her, weaponless and maimed. He had never been bested like this, not since a body had worn him. But he would not shrink from his fate. He lacked an arm, so what? She had from the start. He reached down and took her discarded knife, which his sword had chiseled deep gashes into over the course of their fight. But it would do.

The Rugby players couldn't agree on what had happened afterwards, though they consulted poorly shot iPhone videos repeatedly. It seemed to all of them that the huge one-handed woman had swung early. How else could the weird headless thing have continued, never mind stabbed her?

The armor knew, though, even as he savored the last wound he would inflict in battle. The shrieking finally ceased, and he found himself surprised that it was the last body, the inexperienced boy who the lineage ended with, whose voice whispered "Thank you" just before the end.

For Kasai had cut the armor cleanly in half, and it fell to pieces almost at the same time as it impaled her. Kasai stared down at the remains. For this soldier, the war was finally over. She ignored the knife in her gut, walking over to gather the sword’s sheath. She slung it over her shoulder and put the sword inside. Only then did she pull out the knife, to the general gasps of the Rugby players.

She heard the familiar sound of Andrew gasping for air. She looked and saw he had almost arrived, having apparently run all the way from campus.

“I'm here,” he gasped, “I'm here, where is he?”

Kasai said nothing. He looked at her. He saw her open wound. He looked down and saw the pieces of armor scattered around. He bent down and decided to catch his breath. “All that running...” He grumbled, “for nothing.”

“Would you have preferred that I was unable to dispatch him?” She asked, and he could hear amusement in her voice.

Andrew heard a car approach and looked to confirm it was Alex’s. "Don't be cute, it doesn't suit you,” he replied, “now come on, we need to get out of here, before people start asking questions we can't answer.” Of course, Alex’s questions would be rather harder to avoid answering...but one thing at a time.

That night, Kasai left the field of battle as the victor.


	11. Chatter

@Flamingl0rps: There’s this weird urban legend type thing that seems to be gaining steam just on my campus right now.

@Flamingl0rps: about a giant one-handed girl who goes around picking fights and generally being a badass.

@ArtMystorian: @Flamingl0rps doesn't sound like much of a legend.

@Flamingl0rps: .@artmystorian what got people talking lately is the rumor that she straight up killed a guy.

@ArtMystorian: @Flamingl0rps what? Come on. There would have been cops a news story if there were a murder on campus.

@Flamingl0rps: .@artmystorian I heard about this from a friend of mine on the rugby team.

@Flamingl0rps: .@artmystorian they said she got into a *crazy* sword fight with a dude in armor.

@Flamingl0rps: .@artmystorian and stabbed him to death, then bolted.

@ArtMystorian: @Flamingl0rps more like _Drunkby_ team.

@Flamingl0rps: .@artmystorian ...

@ArtMystorian: @Flamingl0rps so what's the deal then? Why hasn't there been a big fuss?

@Flamingl0rps: .@artmystorian he said the body just vanished before the cops got there. Very weird stuff.

@ArtMystorian: @Flamingl0rps this is getting more believable by the minute.

@Flamingl0rps: .@artmystorian look there's more to this story than just this one guy and this one time.

@Flamingl0rps: .@artmystorian check this out and see what you think after; there are some pics t.co/sdjf

\------------------  
Bitching and Boredom

Post title: Roundup of Fighter Chick Rumors

Since the first post with Sam’s pictures from the Rugby thing, and ton of people have commented and emailed with stories and pictures and stuff. So I thought I'd just put it all together here and see what we've got.

First off, all of the pictures I've seen suck, pretty much. I can kinda piece together a girl who’s really tall and has shoulder length black hair. I haven't seen any clear pictures showing that she only has one hand, something that every witness has said was definitely the case.

Some people say they know members of the MMA club that got their asses handed to them by this girl. I actually went and talked to someone from that team who confirmed this for me. He said she showed up and got into the ring, challenging all comers. He said she was a total beast unlike any fighter he'd ever seen before.

We've all heard something like this before. But what was interesting is he said she _didn’t_ take on their toughest guy. That was done by a friend of hers, who came late. This friend looked like a normal, not exactly tough student. But he managed to get a lucky shot in and take out their guy.

Sam says some guy did show up at the Rugby field right before she bolted; you can kinda make him out in some of the pics.

Juiciest tidbit though was that we may have a name. MMA guy said she introduced herself, and the friend said her name a couple of times too. It sounds like "Kah-sigh" (no idea how you would spell that). So if you hear that name, start paying attention---though be careful. She's clearly more than a little wild, crazy, and dangerous.

Then there's the incident that started everyone talking. Almost everyone who was at Rugby practice that night agrees that she and the armor guy fell out of the sky. No it doesn't make any sense but that's what they all say they saw!

They fought with swords it seems like. When she knocked the guy’s helmet off he made like this insanely loud scream. She killed him and left shortly after that.

The cops don't believe any of it but I know these guys, I know when they're bullshitting. Between that and what little we can get from the pictures, I definitely think there's something going on here. Especially now that someone in the MMA club has confirmed that it isn't the first time she's done something crazy.

Please keep commenting and emailing with any info you have.  
\--------------------

Amanda: you know that one handed fighter chick that people have been talking about?

Kate: yeah?

Amanda: I think she's crashing with my RA.

Kate: what?! No way!

Amanda: yeah. I've seen this huge girl go in and out of there a bunch of times. And then the day that stuff happened with the Rugby guys, someone trashed her room big time. Like, the door was falling off and inside you could see some of her stuff had been busted up.

Kate: you are shitting me right now.

Amanda: what do I do? Should I call campus security or the police or something?

Kate: I don't know. When the rugby guys called the cops they didn't do anything. Maybe call the next time you see this girl?

Amanda: I'm just kind of scared. She sounds like she's really dangerous. Like did she trash the room of her own friend?

Kate: Maybe you should say something to the RA. Maybe she would be open to turning fighter chick in now that her room got trashed.

Amanda: maybe I will. Thanks.


	12. Aftermath

"Get us away from here, please," Andrew said politely as they got into the back of the car.

"To where? And what the fuck happened?" Alex snapped back.

"Please just get going," Andrew pleaded, "I promise I'll explain what I know, I just don't want to hang around here a minute longer."

Alex grit her teeth and put her foot on the gas. They pulled out of the intramural fields area, back towards campus.

"Do you have an extra shirt in here by any chance?" Andrew asked.

"Why?" She asked, and then glanced at them in the rear view mirror, and saw that Kasai's shirt was covered in blood. "Jesus! Fuck! Are you OK?! We have to go to a hospital right now!"

"Alex, Alex no, no hospitals," Andrew said quickly, "Kasai will be fine in five minutes, tops."

"Are you insane?!" She shouted it as loud as she has ever shouted anything, "look at how much blood she's lost! She could die! You need to be putting pressure on that, right now!"

"It is alright, Alex," Kasai reassured her quietly, "Andrew is correct. I heal much more quickly than your people do. I have suffered much worse injuries than this."

Alex couldn't think of anything to say to that.

"I found a shirt on the floor," Andrew said, "actually a hoodie. Do you mind if--"

"I don't care." Alex cut him off, her head throbbing.

"OK. Kasai, could you put this on to hide the blood?" His calm tone was surreal. Kasai complied without a word.

"Why don't you take us to Denny’s," he suggested.

Neither of them noticed that Kasai had the sword on her belt until they were already standing in the Denny’s. Andrew was quick on his feet and explained to the wary host that it was a theater prop. He laughed and said they didn't even realize she was still wearing it, and his calm, affable attitude set them at ease.

As they are the veritable mountain of food they had ordered, Andrew explained everything, from the beginning. Alex sat quietly, not really understanding what was going on. Was she in a dream? Was this a really stupid joke? Andrew usually didn't have the patience for anything elaborate. He was always jumping to the punch line, and then laughing preemptively.

She decided to play along. Or follow the dream logic. Whichever. "So what was that thing the sliced up my room?"

"I don't know," Andrew sighed and for the first time looked genuinely uneasy, "maybe something followed us back?"

"No," Kasai spoke up. They both looked at her, "it is from the world, though far away. This sword," and she gripped the hilt as she said it, "was seeped in so much blood, has seen so many battles, that it changed. War changed it. And it changed the suit of armor that had always been used to wield it. And that is what attempted to kill us." 

"How do you know that?" Alex asked dazedly.

"When I took the sword in my hand, I just knew." Kasai said simply, without elaborating any further. And just like that, Alex believed everything. Listening to Kasai say those words made Alex think back to all the things about her guest that made no sense.

"What have you gotten me into, Andrew?" She asked intensely.

"I had no idea this would happen," he replied guiltily not meeting her eyes.

"I could have been killed! You could have been killed!"

"Neither of us had ever seen this being before nor were we aware of its existence," Kasai interjected, "I will of course no longer be staying with you now that it's clear that it might put you in harm’s way."

"You think there'll be more?" He replied, startled.

"Are you willing to risk her life in order to find out?" She replied curtly. He was very quiet at that. "I will go find somewhere remote to stay until you can get me back to my world."

"That doesn't make sense," Alex sighed, "you don't know this area at all."

"It's true, you'll just end up somewhere you don't know where I can't find you," Andrew muttered.

"Just stay with me until you figure something out," Alex suggested, the danger of the situation not really sinking in.

"No, that won't work any more. For one thing, you're going to have to come up with a story for security about what happened to your room," Andrew pointed out, eliciting a groan from her. "Kasai will come with me."

"But there are MORE people potentially in danger there," Alex pointed out.

"There's also more space. And keeping Kasai and I close together is a good idea, I think; we can take most anything."

"Like you add much of anything," Kasai snorted.

"Not fair!" Andrew replied, but a smile tugged at the side of his face.

"The armored warrior trembled in fear at your slow, out of breath approach," she mocked.

Their rapport and calm just made the whole situation even more surreal for Alex.

\---------------

That had been interesting. It seemed this world had more surprised in store than he had realized. The proximity to such a raw, unfiltered product of war had given him strength.

His little scheme was almost ready. The boys had gathered all the materials they needed. Now it was just a matter of timing.

He was eager but patient. The moment would come. It would be a matter of days, he was sure of it.


	13. The Food Court

A week had passed since Alex’s life was turned upside down by a suit of armor and a story that made no sense. Andrew had been avoiding her, but she knew he had done nothing to figure out his next move. He’d just gone back to his routines, and kept going to class. The only difference was that Kasai was crashing on his couch now instead of hers. Alex had pretended her dorm had been destroyed when she wasn’t in it, and campus security had had her moved to a new one while they figured out what to do.

After her 10:30 class ended, she headed to the food court for an early lunch. She hoped she might find Andrew there and give him a piece of her mind, now that she had had time to process this insanity. Instead, she saw Kasai lurking around, looking uncertain of what to do with herself. Clenching her teeth, Alex walked up to her briskly. “What are you doing here?” she hissed.

“Andrew had to run an errand after his class. He told me to meet him here,” came the calm reply.

“You shouldn’t be out in public,” Alex said, less severely, “people have started to notice you. One of the girls in my building asked about you. And it seems like there are some rumors and pictures going around.”

“What is the danger in that?” Kasai asked, having trouble imagining that any of the humans here posed any kind of threat.

“It’s...I...it’s just not a good idea to raise questions we can’t answer,” Alex replied, realizing how vague that sounded.

“Why couldn’t we simply say that we will not answer them?”

“You’re giving me a headache,” Alex murmured, rubbing her temple, “how about I get us some food. Any preference?” Kasai shrugged. “OK, find an empty table and sit there, please?”

Omar had just been left on his own by a couple of freshman, the latest additions to the MMA club, when he spotted her. She was looking around, wandering between tables. Their eyes met. Without hesitation, he gestured for her to come over. She walked up, her expression betraying nothing. “If you are looking for a table, you’re welcome to this one.” He said. She stared for a moment.

“Will you be staying?” She asked.

“That’s the idea,” he said with a small smile, “is that a problem?”

“I suppose not. Alex will be coming here shortly.” Kasai was still under the impression that everyone knew everyone else in this place.

“Alex who? I thought your dude was Andrew?”

“He is. Alex is a person. That I know.” Kasai explained.

“Well, as long as she is a person I suppose it’ll be OK,” Omar replied, and Kasai suspected she was being mocked. She decided to overlook it. “I’ve been wondering if I’d run into you and your boy again,” he admitted conversationally, “it feels a little weird seeing your giant-ass self walking among normal people. No offense.”

“Why would that offend me?” She asked flatly. He couldn’t tell if she was being sarcastic. He noticed that some people seemed to be staring at them, but decided not to mention it.

“You guys should come by again,” he said.

“Your people looking for a rematch?” she asked, and a grin spread across her face that resembled the one she had worn in the ring. He let out a genuine laugh.

“You think my boys are eager to get back in the ring with you?” he asked, “Naw, I want you guys to come by because I think they could learn a lot from you. Though I wouldn’t mind a little sparring...with each of you.”

Kasai was not sure what to make of his good natured request. This was not how fallen opponents usually behaved, even among the Choshu during practice bouts. But these people did not know war. Omar and his boys engaged in combat for sport. It was entirely outside the realm of her experience.

“Um...friend of yours?” Alex asked awkwardly, approaching them. Omar stood and offered his hand, which startled her.

“I’m Omar,” he said, “you must be Alex.”

“Uh, yes,” she shifted the tray to her left hand so she could accept his hand with her right, “I guess...she mentioned?”

“Kasai and I were just talking about the MMA club, where we met,” he explained, sitting back down.

“Kasai is in the MMA club?” Alex asked, dumbfounded.

“Not yet, but a guy can dream,” he replied with a smile which reached his eyes. Alex suddenly realized that he was extremely attractive, which did not help her get her bearings on the conversation one bit.

“It’s nothing,” Kasai said curtly, growing tired of them both, “we met once. He wants me to join his group. It’s not happening. There is nothing to be concerned with.”

“Well...nice to meet you,” Alex said finally, chafed by Kasai’s attitude, “I was just surprised because I didn’t think Kasai knew many people on campus. She’s...a friend from out of town.”

“Oh yeah? Are you also a friend of Andrew’s?” He asked.

“Yeah, since basically forever,” she replied, growing suspicious about the circumstances under which he had met them.

“That’s cool. Maybe I’ll have better luck recruiting him,” he said.

“What?!” She exclaimed, almost falling out of her chair, “Andrew? Like...punching and stuff? He wouldn’t last two minutes!”

“That a fact?” Omar asked, shooting Kasai an amused look. Kasai ignored them both and took the burger that Alex had brought for her.

Omar saw them coming in the corner of his eye. Three guys in hoodies with their hands in their pockets. As their hands started to come out, he immediately recognized what they were concealing. Without hesitating, he shouted “Guns!” and dove on top of Alex. Kasai, uncertain what Omar was referring to, decided to follow suit, diving down to the ground beside them.

There was the sound of screaming and an incredibly loud sound Kasai had never heard before. “What is happening?” she demanded.

“It’s...it’s guns,” Alex said in a panicked voice, “they’re weapons, incredibly dangerous weapons.”

“How the fuck do you not know what a gun is?” Omar hissed.

“EVERYONE SHUT UP AND ON THE FLOOR!” came a hoarse shout, “OR WE WILL BLOW YOUR FUCKING HEADS OFF!”

Most were already down, and the rest followed. Kasai could smell blood---some people had been injured, a few seriously so. These weapons were fast and powerful, and had a long range.

“Now I’m trying to decide how many of you worthless, entitled, plastic pieces of shit we’re going to kill today,” the voice continued, “and who it’s going to be. Any suggestions?” Silence followed.

“This can’t be happening,” Alex stammered, breathing very fast, “it can’t be. It’s never happened here.” Omar squeezed her arm in gentle reassurance, even though he felt like she sounded. But Kasai was as focused as a laser. She attempted to look up from below the table at the shooters. She caught glimpse of something metal with a hole in the front. “He must point this ‘gun’ at its target to attack?” She whispered.

“Of course,” Omar replied incredulously.

“D-don’t try anything,” Alex warned, “it’s too dangerous!”

“I’M FUCKING WAITING,” came a shout, causing a few cries and whimpers from the terrified crowd of students. To Omar’s shock, Kasai stood up. The three gunmen’s heads jerked in her direction, but they didn’t move their weapons. “Well, hey there pretty girl,” the lead man said, and his fellows snickered a bit, “are you volunteering to die?”

They were fools. They were not even aiming at her. Even with these strange weapons, they would not prove a challenge. She waited, and said nothing.

“You scared,” he mocked, drawing more snickers.

“You are pathetic little boys,” she said loudly, staring down at them as if they were ants, “and I am going to break you like twigs.” The lead man’s face twisted up in a snarl.

“What the fuck did you say to me?!” He pointed his gun at her, and his fellows did the same, “You think you’re better than---”

Kasai didn’t wait. She leapt, and they fired, drawing screams from the crowd---Alex’s included. But Kasai was well above where they were aiming. She hurled, feet first, towards the center gunman. She knocked him down and felt the satisfying crunch of his ribs under her feet. The other two had not even processed that their shots had missed by the time she was moving again. She backhanded the one on her left and felt his jaw give way as he flung back, dropping his weapons. She moved to elbow the third, but he was tripping over himself to get away from her and fell on his back. Her strike went above him, and he pointed up to shoot, panic in his eyes. Kasai used her momentum to fall sideways and roll out of the way as he opened fire. He shot until the guns ran out of bullets. 

He quickly got to his feet, pointing the empty guns at her. “Stay back!” he stammered. Kasai was already on her feet, hunched forward, ready to spring at a moment’s notice. “I SAID STAY BACK YOU FUCKING FREAK!” He bumped into something big behind him. He spun around just in time for Omar to deliver a hard blow to his stomach, knocking the wind right out of him. He dropped the guns and kneeled over, clutching his belly.

“Give it up, kid,” Omar said angrily, “I don’t know what you thought you were doing but she took you guys apart before you could sneeze.” The gunman retched, and started sobbing loudly. “Pull yourself together you piece of shit,” Omar spat.

“You...bitch…” the first gunman gasped from the floor, wheezing loudly with each breath. As Omar watched incredulously, he actually tried to lift his guns up to aim at Kasai.

“Kasai, you should take away---” but Kasai had already turned and sprung, and landed with her feet on each of the gunman’s wrists. The scream he let out, though shortened by the clear difficulty he was having breathing, sent a chill down Omar’s spine. Omar quickly grabbed the guns near him, though they were empty.

“Could someone please grab the other guy’s guns?” He shouted, “And be careful---those are definitely still loaded.” A girl near the boy with the shattered jaw picked them up nervously, and set them down on a table near Omar. “Thank you. Has someone called 911? Alex?” he had asked her to before getting up, but she had clearly been in shock.

“I-I’m on with them now,” she called, getting up from the floor with a phone to her ear. A few others chimed in that they had called as well.

“OK, is everyone alright? Other than these dumbasses, I mean.” this drew some nervous chuckles. People who had been shot or were near someone that was piped up, and they set to the task of doing what they could for the wounded while waiting for ambulances to arrive.

Kasai stood over her beaten foe, and grinned. “I told you I’d break you, little boy,” she mocked.

“It’s not…” he wheezed, “it’s not over yet.”

“Oh?” Are you planning to beat me by spitting blood at my feet?”

“Knock it off, Kasai,” Omar said sharply, “people are scared enough, and that isn’t helping.” Kasai gave him a look which communicated how little she cared, but she said no more.

“He means there are more of us,” the boy near Omar said quietly.

“More? Where?” Omar pulled him up by the fabric of his hoodie, “Talk. Now.”

“There are five more with us. They’re in the library now.” He replied meekly.

“Andrew was going to be in the library,” Kasai said calmly.

“What?!” Alex cried, forgetting the phone in her hand, “Andrew is there?! We have to do something! Kasai, can you---”

“It is fine.” Kasai cut her off.

“Fine? What do you meant fine?” Alex’s voice grew shrill.

“Andrew is more than enough for five pieces of trash like this."


	14. The Library

Andrew had been searching for information on their armored assailant since the incident without success. After using up all of his Internet options, he was out of ideas for a while. How do you find something if Google and Wikipedia can’t tell you about it? The problem seemed insurmountable.

It then occurred to Andrew that there were professors of mythology of various sorts, and that they probably had at least one on that very campus! He did some more googling, and lo and behold, they not only had several professors of mythology, but one who specialized in the far east. Andrew looked up the professor’s office hours and stopped by. The professor thought that the story of a hollow suit of Samurai armor sounded familiar, but couldn’t place it off the top of his head. He gave Andrew a list of books that might be able to help him.

Books! Of course! Those were a thing! Proud of the progress he had made, Andrew went to the university library, list in hand. Hopefully he’d have some more information for Kasai when he met up with her afterwards.

Only three of the seven books recommended by the professor were in the library. The ones that were there were all in the same section, on the third floor. After some fruitless wandering, Andrew found them, and sat down between rows of bookshelves to start digging into them. He went to the index of the first book, but wasn’t even sure how it would help him. He flipped around a few pages with terms that seemed like they might be related to the armor, but didn’t find anything at first. Books are frustrating. 

He spot-checked pages here and there in each book for what seemed like an eternity but was at most an hour and a half, before a loud cry startled him from his frustrated search. “GUN!” a man shouted, followed almost immediately by a shot and a cry of pain. Screams filled the floor, and Andrew jumped up into a low crouch. 

He could hear someone giving a low moan; he assumed it was the person who had been shot. “Shut your fucking face or I’ll finish the job!” someone shouted, sounding more hysterical themselves than commanding. A school shooter. Here. Now. In Andrew’s school.

“Nobody move! If you move a fucking finger I’ll shoot you in the fucking face!” The voice continued. From the sound, Andrew judged him to be around the corner, back towards the elevators. This made sense. He must have got off the elevator and then shot. Now what the hell was Andrew going to do?

Someone was walking towards him. Well, not specifically towards him, but in his direction. He could see his feet through the shelves. He stopped. “You people,” he said, a different voice and much more in control of himself, “move towards the elevator where my partner can see you. Do as I say and you may come out of it. Hesitate and I’ll kill you right now, you get that?” The four or five students who were lying on the floor stood up and shakily walked over to where the injured student lay whimpering in pain. “Very good. Nice and easy. Keep moving. All right. Stay right where you are.” The gunman started walking again. Andrew tensed. This was it.

The gunman walked in front of the two bookcases that Andrew was crouched between. He looked like he couldn’t be older than 19 or 20. He noticed Andrew, and started to aim his gun and say something. But Andrew didn’t wait. He chucked the hardcover he had in his hand, hard. It smacked the gunman in the forehand, putting him off balance. The gun went off, but it wasn’t pointed at Andrew and the shot went wild. In the back of his mind, Andrew hoped that no one was harmed on a lower floor, but he was already on his feet and closing the distance between himself and the gunman. In one smooth motion he grabbed the wrist above the hand holding the gun, to keep it pointed away, and brought his left elbow up into the gunman’s nose. The gunman would probably have fallen and cracked his head open on the wall, but Andrew held his wrist tight to keep it from happening. A moment later he let go and the gunman flopped to the floor, dropping his gun in the process. Andrew did not want to pick it up but knew he had to. He had no idea how to disarm the thing and he had never fired a gun in his life. He took it, looked for the safety quickly, and turned it on.

“What the fuck?!” shouted the partner, who rushed over to see what was going on. He saw Andrew holding the gun and immediately opened fire.

“Shit!” Andrew cried in a shrill voice, diving back between the bookcases as bullets flew over him. Thankfully, it did not seem that this nutjob was a very good shot.

“I’m going to kill you you piece of shit!” the gunman began to run, and Andrew scrambled to his feet, ignoring the desire to run away as fast as he could. Instead, he ran towards the gunman, while remaining low to the ground. The gunman, as surprised as Andrew was to find the latter doing anything other than running for his life, was caught off guard when Andrew’s shoulder collided with his pelvis. Andrew wrapped his arms around him and tackled him to the floor. The gunman was no professional---he lost his grip on the gun immediately, and it went sliding across the floor.

“Somebody grab that please!” Andrew shouted, as he struggled with the lunatic on the ground.

“Get off me you fucking fag,” growled the boy, who looked even younger than the first guy. He was surprisingly fit for a maniac who had decided to gun down a bunch of students for jollies, but he was no Mibu soldier. Andrew managed to get him pinned, and after a moment some of the other students there came over and helped restrain him so Andrew could get up.

“Did someone call 911?” He asked, breathing heavily. They had. “Good. Could...some folks make sure the other guy doesn’t try anything either? I’m...going to sit down now.” And he did, his heart pounding in his chest. What the hell had just happened? The kid continued to shout threats and profanities at them.

“You’re all fucking dead!” he shouted in a voice getting increasingly hoarse.

“Jesus, don’t you ever shut up?” Andrew asked, feeling the beginnings of a major headache.

“You think you’ve won?” the young gunman spat, “There’s still three more of us, asshole! Once they’re done with the second floor, they’re going to come for you and they’re going to fuck you up for what you’ve done to me!”

“There are five of you?!” Andrew gasped, “are you kidding me? When does that ever happen?” The gunman grinned at him, and the people restraining him began to look nervous. Three more gunmen. Three. Andrew had barely survived the two. What should he do? The cops had been called. They’d be better prepared for this than he was. This was the first time he’d even faced off against people with guns, and there’d be one more than he’d had to deal with on this floor. He should just wait.

But he knew what Kasai would say if she was there. And she was right.

“Put them in separate study rooms and close the door. Try to jam it with a chair or something, I don’t know. Just don’t let them out again.” He said.

“What are you going to do?” One of the guys holding the gunman asked.

“I’m going downstairs,” he sighed.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------

He took the stairs, and tried to be as quiet as he could. He figured they would be in front of the elevator just like the two on his floor had been. He must have been heard, though. When he opened the door, there was someone on the other side, waiting for him. He slammed the door shut as fast as he could, but the gunman got a shot off. Splinters from the door were flying everywhere, and Andrew felt a sharp pain in his right shoulder. He ignored it and ran down the stairs, and moments later the door flew back open and two people shouted down after him. 

Fuck! What could he possibly do? He was going to get himself killed because he was an idiot who couldn’t just sit tight and wait for the cops. When had he become that kind of idiot?! What had happened to the slacker who always did the bare minimum or less? He missed that slacker, right at that moment. They tried to shoot down at him but they missed. He reached the door to the first floor and rushed out of it. He stepped just to the side of the door and waited. but surely they wouldn’t be that stupid?

They were. They burst out and Andrew immediately punched the first one in the temple, as hard as he could. Without thinking he had punched with his right hand, and a white hot pain shot down from his shoulder. But he couldn’t stop---he grabbed the second man by the wrist and kicked him in the shin. He dropped his gun and Andrew pushed him away. A pair of campus police rushed up to help. They got both guns away from the gunmen and cuffed them. “There’s...there’s another one,” Andrew huffed, “he’s on the second floor. He still has a gun.”

“Son, I think you need to sit down.” One officer said, but Andrew ignored him.

“Did you hear me? I SAID HE HAS A GUN!” He shouted, “there are two on the third floor, but they’ve been disarmed. Please, these guys are crazy, the last guy has got to be panicking now that he’s alone!”

“Help is on its way,” the officer said, “but you’ve been shot. You’re in shock. We need to look at your wound.”

“I’ve been---?” Andrew looked down to his shoulder and noticed that it was a bloody mess. Part of him just wanted to collapse and let these people do their job. But Andrew could not stop thinking about the last gunman. With his friends gone, what if he went to the third floor to look for the two there? What if by disarming them and leaving the students behind, Andrew had put them in a position where the last gunman wouldn’t hesitate to kill them?

Before the officers could react, he turned and bolted back through the doorway, up the stairs.


	15. Hospital Visits

Andrew sat upright in his hospital bed, his right arm in a sling, his mother on his left. She was squeezing his left arm pretty hard, as if she was afraid he’d disappear if she eased up for even a moment. Not that Detective Duarte could blame her. Of course she didn’t appreciate the daggers that the mother was glaring in her direction at that particular moment.

“Just asking some standard questions, ma’am,” she assured them.

“It’s OK mom,” Andrew said, grabbing her hand reassuringly with his free one, “no, detective, I didn’t know any of these guys.”

“How about these ones?” She asked, producing pictures of the three who had been at the food court. Andrew had already seen video and photos of them, but he politely took another look. He didn’t patronize her; he seriously studied the faces to see if he remembered them from a class, or from anywhere.

“Sorry,” he said, meaning it, “I really have no idea who these guys are or why they decided to get together for a campus shooting spree.” He handed the pictures back, and Duarte took them, chewing on her lower lip for a minute.

“Mrs. Holt, would you mind stepping out with my partner for a moment?” She asked.

“Why?” Andrew felt his mother’s grip on him tighten, “What’s going on here? Do you treat all good samaritans like criminals, just to make sure they don’t feel like doing it again?”

“Mom, I don’t think we’re in any danger of me wrestling with school shooters again either way,” Andrew said comfortingly, “they just want to make sure there isn’t anything I’d say without you in the room. And there isn’t, but let’s let them do their jobs, OK?”

“It won’t take long, I promise,” Duarte assured her. The mother didn’t seem convinced, but she allowed Detective Jones to walk her out of the room. “Well?” Duarte prompted, once the door was closed.

“I really have no idea who these guys are,” Andrew said, “I wasn’t just saying so to spare my dear old mom from the shock.”

“How about her,” Duarte walked over with her phone, which had a blurry but recognizable picture of Kasai on it. Andrew’s demeanor changed immediately. He became very quiet. “Well?’

“I’ve seen her around campus,” he said, guardedly.

“You’ve got a terrible poker face, kid,” she told him, “come on, what’s your relationship with this girl?”

“We’ve hung out a few times,” he admitted, “but that’s it. Why?”

“Just following up on some leads,” she replied, though her tone was far from reassuring. The door swung open and his mother stomped back into the room. Duarte looked up and caught an apologetic look from her partner.

“I think that’s quite enough detective,” Mrs. Holt said firmly, “my son needs his rest. I’m sure if you have more questions you can ask them after he’s recovered from this horrible incident.” Duarte chewed her lower lip again, but kept a neutral expression.

“Of course,” she said after a moment, breaking into a friendly smile, “we’ll just be on our way. You take care, Andrew.”

“Thank you, detectives,” Andrew replied, looking fatigued.

“How hard are you going to push this?” Jones asked once they were in the hallway.

“As hard as we have to,” she replied.

“Kid’s a real hero,” he said, “we’ve got no reason to think he was connected with the shooters.”

“But he is definitely connected with the girl who took out the other shooters,” she argued, “and you don’t find that weird?”

“We can’t even be sure that there was a girl who took out the other shooters,” he pointed out, “witnesses have contradicted each other and themselves left and right about that. And it seems like she’s like an urban legend or something.”

“I got a reaction from the kid when I showed him the picture,” she shot back, “he definitely knows her.”

“Yeah?”

“And you heard the campus cop’s statement. This kid chased down the last shooter, with a bullet in his shoulder, and dodged each shot like some kind of pro.”

“That was pretty weird. But he’d already been shot at that point---maybe he just got lucky that last time.”

“He got damn lucky, the whole time,” she said curtly, “he wasn’t just endangering himself. He could have set those psychos off and gotten a lot of bystanders killed.”

“They went in shooting. A few of them have already confessed that they intended to pile up a big body count. I don’t think he was at any risk of making things worse.”

“Not like he could have known that.”

 

“Jane, if this kid’s story checks out and he has nothing to do with these shooters, then he’s a genuine hero. He saved a lot of lives.”

“Maybe,” she conceded between tightly pressed lips, “it just doesn’t make sense. I’ve never heard of one hero being so successful in these situations. Never mind two, totally independently of each other!”

“It is strange…” he allowed.

“It’s damned bizarre, is what it is. And I have trouble believing that it’s a coincidence.”

“Well, let’s figure out how these guys connected with each other and decided to pull this crazy stunt,” he suggested, “if the kid and the boxer have nothing to do with it, then it doesn’t really matter how big a coincidence it was, or whether that girl is involved. Does it?”

“No, I suppose not,” she sighed. He had a point. But she didn’t like it.

\---------------------------------------------------

Omar watched as the cops walked out, standing just out of view. They had given him a real hard time back on campus, and it seems they had gone straight from there to grill Andrew. Hopefully they’d cut the guy some slack, given that he was recovering from a gunshot wound! But the last thing he wanted was to have to admit that they knew each other. They hadn’t done anything wrong, but he had no desire to give off any red flags. The last thing he needed was some cop getting the wrong idea and making trouble for him.

It didn’t help that they had to lie about Kasai. He had no idea why they were covering for her, but he could tell she was not from around there. She hadn’t even known what a gun was. And the way she moved---it wasn’t normal. There was a story there, and it made him feel uncomfortable participating in the coverup. But she had probably saved his life and a lot of other people’s, too. He wouldn’t betray someone like that.

He made his way back to Andrew’s room. Through the open door, he could see someone he presumed was Andrew’s mother giving him a very intense and emotional lecture about something. Poor kid. He knocked lightly on the door. They both looked up at him.

“Nurse said it was OK to visit,” he said, “should I come back later?”

“Oh, no,” Mrs. Holt said quickly, wiping her eyes with her sleeves, “please come in. It’s so thoughtful of you to come. I’m Elizabeth Holt, Andrew’s mother.” She offered her hand, and Omar took it.

“I’m Omar Hadded, it’s a pleasure to meet you Mrs. Holt. You have an amazing son,” he said politely.

“Please, Elizabeth,” she said, smiling a little now, “Mrs. Holt was appropriate when Andrew’s friends were all smaller than I am.”

“Omar certainly doesn’t fit that description,” Andrew said weakly. He put out his left hand, “forgive the left-sided handshake, but, you know…”

“I’ll overlook it this once I guess,” Omar said with a grin, shaking his hand and then giving him a friendly jab in the arm, “how are you, man? You look awful.”

“Thanks,” Andrew replied with a wry grin, “I’m going to be fine. They want to keep me overnight to make sure everything’s A-OK, but that’s just them covering their asses. Sorry mom,” he added quickly. She made a show of giving a long-suffering sigh, but then put her hand gently on his arm, and smiled with genuine warmth.

“Forgive my barbarian son,” she said, looking much more composed than when Omar had first walked in, “you’re the hero of the hour as well, aren’t you? The boy who took care of those monsters who were in the food court?” This appeared to be news to Andrew.

“Really?” He asked, giving Omar a searching look.

“Well, I helped,” Omar said uncomfortably, “but I didn’t really act alone.” He gave Andrew a look which he hoped conveyed the meaning of that sentence. He didn’t know for sure, but he would bet Mrs. Holt had never met or even heard of Kasai. He had nothing to gain from making things hard for the guy---nor did he really feel like making trouble for a guy who took a bullet to save a bunch of innocent people.

“Well, the people I saw on the news said that you really took charge of the situation,” she replied, “what you did was very admirable. It scares me to death that my son did something like it, and it scares me that this happened at all, but that doesn’t make you any less a hero.”

“I’m not half the hero your son is, Elizabeth,” he said, and meant it.

“Nonsense,” she replied, but looked immensely proud.

“You’re turning out to be kind of a softy, Mr. mixed martial artist,” Andrew said bashfully.

“Yeah, I’m a real kitten,” Omar replied, the left side of his mouth turning up in a sardonic smirk, “well, I’ll let you rest. I just wanted to check in. Oh, I also wanted to let you know that Alex is OK.”

“Alex was in the food court?” Andrew exclaimed, sitting up.

“It’s OK,” Elizabeth said gently, easing him back down, “he just said that she is fine.”

“She was pretty shook up, but she didn’t get injured or anything. Right now she’s crashing at my place because she wanted to get off campus for a while.”

“I’m surprised she wouldn’t just stay with her parents,” Elizabeth said with a hint of disapproval.

“She’s seen them, and worked it out, made sure they knew she was OK,” he assured her, “and don’t worry. I’m perfectly OK with sleeping on the couch for a while.”

“If she’s OK with sharing the bed, you have my blessing as number one friend,” Andrew said with a grin.

“Andrew! Honestly!”

“I’m thinking that maybe now’s not the time for that,” Omar said with amusement, “but you should come by. I’m sure you guys have a lot to talk about.”

“I’m surprised she didn’t come here herself,” Elizabeth said. Something seemed to click for Andrew; he gave Omar another searching look, so Omar gave him a barely perceptible nod.

“She’s probably just shell-shocked,” Andrew said, “why don’t we both go and see her tomorrow, mom? If you’re OK with having us, that is.”

“It would be my pleasure. Not a lot of room for folks at my place but we can make due I’m sure.”

“I have a better idea,” Elizabeth interjected, “why don’t you and Alex come over for dinner?”

“You sure you want to be entertaining so soon after...something like this? After Andrew was…” he couldn’t make himself say it in front of her.

“I’d like the excuse to have him at home, and see how Alex is doing for myself,” she replied, “and though I know you weren’t at the library, I feel as though we owe you a debt.”

“You don’t owe me a thing ma’am,” he said quietly, looking down, “but I’d be honored to come over.”

“Dinner for four, then,” she said.

“Better make it five,” Andrew said quietly, giving Omar a meaningful look.

“Five?” She looked taken aback, “Who else did you have in mind, dear?” Andrew was quiet for a long time after that, until she finally added, “Andrew?”

“There’s...a girl,” he sighed, “not...like that. Anyway, she’s a friend, and I think she should be there. I’ll explain tomorrow I’m just...really tired right now.”

“OK...of course she can come, too. Anyone else you want to invite honey?”

“No...thank you, mom. That’s it. Sorry.”

“Nothing to be sorry about,” she said, baffled by his behavior.

“Well...I’ll see you then,” Omar said awkwardly, “I look forward to it.”

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

That hadn’t been nearly as invigorating as he had hoped it would be. Still, there had been blood spilled. He would take solace in that.

They had been much stronger than he anticipated. But it did not matter. Time was on his side, would always be on his side. It was the nature of thinking things to be ever on the precipice of falling into war, no matter how peaceful they seemed at times. Not far from the children’s little botched butchery business he sensed a great deal of potential.

And so he made his way towards the city, humming a tune his mother had sung to him many lifetimes ago.


	16. Dinner

Andrew had insisted on going to see his friends before coming home, despite her protests. But the doctor and nurses had said that he was in remarkably good shape, and should be fine to go and visit with anyone. So long as he didn’t push it.

His remarkable recovery was only one of many strange things about her son that Elizabeth had pointedly avoided asking too many questions about. The thin scar along his left cheek was another. His dramatic weight loss, and more solid build, was another. But in the hospital she was just overjoyed to see him alive.

The four of them arrived together. Andrew opened the door without knocking, and she went to greet them. Alex walked in next, looking wary. Elizabeth gave her a hug. “How are you?” She asked earnestly.

“I’m OK Mrs. Holt,” she said with a nervous smile, “better than this reckless idiot, right?” 

“Well that’s good,” Elizabeth said, and they walked past her into the house. Omar, the boy who had visited in the hospital, was right behind them. He had a big bouquet of flowers, which he handed to her.

“Thank you for having us, ma’am,” He said, lowering his head a little. She didn’t know the boy but she had immediately liked him when they met; he seemed like a kind soul, and now he played the gentleman. Not to mention his own heroism at the school.

“Don’t be so formal,” She said with a warm smile, “come in, come in.” He gave her a friendly grin that showed his teeth, and walked in.

She was behind him.

Even though she wasn’t completely unprepared, the sight of the fourth guest took Elizabeth aback. She towered over Omar, who was a giant himself. Though it was clear that some effort had been made to make her look presentable, there was still something wild about her, from the way her jet black hair fell in tussles, to her piercing green eyes. She looked very uncomfortable, like she didn’t know what to say or do next.

“You must be Kasai,” Elizabeth said, which seemed to surprise the girl, “please come in. Any friend of Andrew’s is welcome here.” The girl made a sort of grunt in acknowledgement and walked in. As she did, Elizabeth’s eyes wandered down to where the girl’s right hand should have been. When she looked up, she saw Andrew staring at her searchingly. It surprised her---but she tried not to let it show. She gave him a warm smile. “You’re in for a treat. I hope the rest of your friends like pasta carbonara as much as you do.”

“I’m sure they’ll suffer in silence if they don’t,” he replied with a grin.

When dinner was ready the conversation stayed within the safe confines of small talk. Alex caught her up to speed on everything in her life, including many areas of overlap with Andrew.

“And what about you, Omar?” Elizabeth prompted, “Andrew says you’re in the MMA club.”

“Yes ma’am,” he replied promptly.

 

“So quick with ‘yes ma’am,’ you must have been raised so well,” she noted.

“My mom’s a strict lady and she doesn’t suffer any rudeness in her house, ma’am,” he said with that toothy grin of his.

“I could have used an ally like that when I was raising this one,” she said, with a gesture to Andrew, who had spaghetti protruding from his mouth. “Well, you see how he turned out.” This drew a laugh from all but Kasai, who remained awkwardly quiet.

“And you, Kasai?”

“Yes...ma’am?” came the slow, awkward reply. She seemed to be self-consciously taking cues from how Omar had behaved.

“What was your upbringing like? Very strict?” She noted that Alex and Andrew became visibly tense.

“Yes. Very strict,” Kasai replied quietly, “though not in the same way as Omar’s, I guess. They didn’t much care how rude we were. Just that we were disciplined, and did our duty.”

“No like around here,” Alex piped in with a grin, “no offense Mrs. Holt.”

“Sad but true Alex,” Elizabeth said warmly, looking at her son, who had been paying close attention to the exchange, “I’m afraid I spoiled Andrew from a very early age.”

“I’m sure it’s mostly his fault, ma’am,” Omar remarked, before filling his mouth with food.

“Stubbornly undisciplined, that’s our Andrew,” Alex said in good humor. They looked at him and he forced a smile. He seemed on edge, and he was bad at hiding it.

Kasai was uncomfortable for a very different reason. She was trying to suss out the protocols for being a guest in the home of a comrade’s kin in this place, but they seemed frustratingly loose and indeterminate. But what was really eating at her was the warmth of the place. Andrew’s mother seemed like a generous and loving person. And the ease with which she welcomed even strangers such as herself and Omar was completely foreign to Kasai’s experience.  
“Our discipline was out of necessity, but it was also the pride of my people,” she said suddenly, “sometimes this resulted in a certain coldness between kin, something which it seems Andrew has the good luck to have avoided.” Andrew stared at her in amazement. It sounded like she had complimented his mother. Kasai didn’t do compliments, especially not to new people, and without specific provocation.

“Well thank you for saying so, Kasai,” Elizabeth replied quietly, “were things...cold in your home?” Andrew really wished that she hadn’t asked.

“No, not really,” Kasai said, staring down at her uneaten food, not knowing why she was talking so much, “my grandfather was stern and strict but he never lacked for tenderness. Some saw it as a weakness, but his reputation and position made that a matter of indifference. At least for him.”

“He sounds like a wonderful man,” Elizabeth commented, “did he raise you alone?”

“Yes, my parents fell in the...in a war when I was an infant,” Kasai replied, feeling small and helpless against this woman’s gentle prodding.

“I’m very sorry,” Elizabeth said, and meant it. Kasai felt very strange then. Why had she brought any of this up? Why did she let herself think of family, of her grandfather? She wanted to smash the table to pieces and break their soft human necks and forget that this terrible meal had ever taken place.

Andrew cleared his throat, and they all turned to look at him. “So...I think I owe you an explanation for a few things,” he said. Kasai was relieved to have their host’s attention off of her.

“You’re going to do this now?” Omar said, surprised, “I would’ve thought you’d want us to finish dinner so I can leave you to it.”

“I want to tell you too,” Andrew said, “you’ve been sucked into all of this. You deserve some answers.”

“If you’re OK with that,” Omar said warily, looking to Elizabeth as if to ask her permission.

Elizabeth didn’t say anything. And as Andrew told them the story of how he came to meet Kasai, what they had gone through, right up through the recent incident with the school shooters, her expression became unreadable. Omar, on the other hand, was an open book. From skepticism to shock to humor and back to skepticism and shock again, his face and his verbal reactions were pretty clear. But he let Andrew finish without asking any questions. And when Andrew had finished, he looked to Elizabeth, not wanting to ask questions before her. But she didn’t say anything.

“Mom?” Andrew finally prompted.

“Yes?” She said, in a neutral tone that he associated with the onset of a lecture.

“Do you...have any questions, or anything to say? I know it’s kind of hard to take in, probably even harder to believe.”

“Well, fortunately, I’ve already had some time to absorb it,” she told him, looking tensely towards the end of the table.

“What do you---” Andrew followed her gaze and gaped at who he saw standing by the entrance to the room.

“I filled her in ahead of time,” the Maker said, with a grin that showed his pearly white teeth, “I hope you don’t mind.”


	17. The Visit

Omar instinctively tensed in response to being snuck up on. He turned and saw what looked at first like a ghost---a big, white form standing a few feet back from the table. When it came into focus, he could see that it was a man---a very tall, very white man. Omar had seen albinos before and this guy made them look black by comparison; his skin was an unnatural bleach white, matched by the white of his absurdly long hair. And absurdly, he chose to wear an outfit---a robe of some kind---that was just as white. Omar practically had to shield his eyes when looking at the guy. After he spoke, he gave them a grin, revealing---you guessed it---pearly white teeth.

Omar glanced across the table at Kasai. If he was tense, she was coiled like a spring. He had seen her like that just a couple of days ago, moments before she did spring---and crush a guy’s rib cage under her feet.

“Why are you here?” She asked between gritted teeth.

“I’ve got something important to talk to you about. About why you’re here, and why you’ve been attacked.” the Maker replied, unphased by her death-stare. Omar was a little impressed. He was pretty sure he’d cry like a baby if Kasai looked at him like that.

“Did you have something to do with this?” Kasai was looking for an excuse to take this guy apart. Omar could hear it in her voice. He’d seen many guys get that way throughout the years; sporting for a fight and not being too discerning about the why. Hell, he’d been that way himself more than he cared to admit.

Andrew noticed it too, and put a hand on her shoulder. “Easy, Kasai,” he said gently. She gave him a look like she was going to tear off his arm and beat him to death with it, but caught herself. She took a deep breath, and turned back to the Maker. She did not look happy, but she had relaxed a little; she didn’t look like she was moments away from attacking. Omar observed this little interaction with interest. He glanced at Andrew’s mother and noticed her staring intently, as well.

“Thank you, Andrew,” the Maker said, “and no need for such hostility, Kasai. I’ve never done you any harm, have I?” She said nothing, and her expression did not change. He sighed. “I’ve also done you both a little favor. There are two police officers outside who have been following Andrew since he left the hospital. They took quite a few pictures, especially of Kasai.”

“What?” Andrew asked, alarmed.

“Not to worry. I took care of the cameras. And their car engine. After we talk, you can go right out the front door and they won’t be able to do a thing.”

“Took care?” Andrew sounded nervous, imagining how Kasai would ’take care’ of things in these circumstances. 

"I asked nicely," the Maker assured him, "the made listen to me. It’s the born that I have trouble with."

"Why. Are. You. Here." Kasai demanded, refusing to get sidetracked. 

"I came to warn you, and give a bit of advice," he replied gently.

"Warn us about what? If it's a murderous suit of armor, you're too late," Andrew said.

"It's related to that, and to the unfortunate incident you all were involved in a couple of days ago."

"Incident!" Alex repeated in outrage. Omar was surprised at this reaction---he was way too off balance to muster up anything like outrage.

"Forgive me miss, I don't mean to downplay what happened," the Maker said immediately. Alex affixed him with a glare, but said nothing.

"How could they be connected?" Andrew asked.

"There are beings in your world that long ceased to exist in ours," their strange guest explained, "they noticed when you both came through, and seem to have decided you are a threat."

"What sort of beings?" Andrew asked.

"What did you call Kasai and me? ’Not-humans that look more or less human’? They're like that, though some of them don't look anything like a human."

"Well that's a vague a terrifying answer," Andrew blanched. 

"And the shooters?" Alex piped up.

"They were sent by...something else."

"What was it, Maker," Kasai pressed him without a shred of patience in her voice.

"I cannot tell you," he said, looking genuinely apologetic.

"You will tell us." Kasai said quietly, leaving the threat implied.

"I would if I could," he replied, "but I am bound by certain rules, and breaking them is not a choice available to me."

"Can you tell us anything?" Andrew asked.

"Just that the thing that drew those boys to your school is the real danger that the masters of that armor were afraid of. But they think you are it."

"Why would they think that?" Andrew asked, incredulous.

"Because it came with us," Kasai said, almost immediately. The Maker’s face betrayed a feeling of guilt before righted himself. 

"It's true," he confirmed after a moment.

"What? How is that possible?"

"We know nothing of how it works," Kasai snapped at him, "you do not even know how it happened or why I was brought here too."

"Well, those are easy. It happened because he had achieved enough mastery to make it, and he wanted it badly enough. And you came because he wanted you to." 

Kasai gave Andrew a look with a neutral expression that made him uncomfortable.

"So wait, are you saying that I wanted this thing to come with us, too?" He quickly demanded.

"No. you created a hole, and it had been watching you and waiting for you to. It knew how to go through once you did it."

"Where can we find this thing?" Kasai demanded, her tone cold.

"Don't worry about that. It is occupied for now and shouldn't give you any more trouble for some time. Your priority should be to clear up the misunderstanding with this world’s residents."

"You will not tell me what my priorities are, old man," Kasai growled, "but where can I find these residents you speak of?"

"There are many ways to access their lands; I can give you all the information you require."

"I'm going with you," Andrew said. Kasai looked startled.

"You are not," she replied firmly, "you will stay with your mother and your friends. You will go to school."

"These things are after me too---right?" He directed the question to the Maker.

"He's right, Kasai," the Maker said softly.

"Shut your mouth," Kasai snarled. Then, to Andrew, "You are still injured, and you are a worthless fool who will only slow me down."

"I don't need more than one arm to be useful, and you know damn well I can hold my own," Andrew shot back, staring her right in the eyes. Kasai could not believe this stubbornness from him.

And then his mother began to cry. It was a soft sound, and it only caught the attention when she sniffed, loudly, to avoid letting her nose run. All eyes turned to her.

"Mom..." Andrew did not know what to say, and he sat, stupidly, not moving.

"Why should you have to go?" She asked, "None of this makes sense, and I don't understand why you have to be involved in any of it."

Andrew did get up then, and went over to embrace her. she hugged him back, tightly. "I don't really get it either, Mom, but it is what it is. I don't want you or someone on campus getting hurt because I just ignored this, you know?"

"What about your classes?" She asked, grasping at straws.

"We can figure that out later. If I have to retake them, it won't be the end of the world." he said gently.

"I'm sure they'll give him a lot of leeway, after what happened," Alex added.

Omar looked from this scene back to Kasai. She looked pissed, more angry than she had at the beginning.

"You made the stone so that it would seek someone living in utter piece and without any experience of battle, or desire for it," she said in a low voice, "and you knew---you knew! That something was waiting for us to open a hole, and you did not warn us or do anything?"

"Kasai," the Maker began.

"You stole the peace from this world and from this family!" Kasai shrieked it, and punctuated by slamming a fist on the table. The table gave, splintering violently apart. Omar covered his face to avoid the splinters, and when he looked again, Kasai had the Maker by the throat and was holding the large man in the air as though he weighed nothing.

"Tell us what we need to know," she snarled, "and then get out of my sight before I gut you in front of Andrew’s mother."


End file.
